The Diamond Lady riverboat casino launched riverboat gaming in Iowa and Mississippi. It sank in the winter of 2021, and historically low Mississippi River water levels have exposed her ravaged hull at a Memphis marina called Riverside Park. (Image: fox13memphis.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBernie Goldstein, the scrap-metal magnate who became known as the \u201cfather of riverboat gambling,\u201d built the Diamond Lady and her sister boat, the Emerald Lady, in 1990. They were replicas of the 1880s paddlewheelers that once ran the Mississippi River, and their interiors brimmed with all the slot machines and table games allowed under Mississippi regulations.<\/p>\n
The Diamond Lady launched on the same day as the President in Davenport, Ia. and the Casino Belle in Dubuque, Ia \u2013 April 1, 1991. But the Diamond Lady made history because it was first off the dock. Three thousand people lined the dock in Bettendorf, Ia., to watch game-show hostess Vanna White christen the boat. They jockeyed for space on four excursions she took that day. Over half a million boarded the riverboat during its first year of operation.<\/p>\n
But Goldstein claimed that strict gaming regulations cost him millions in his first year of operation. So, on July 5, 1992, he moved the Diamond Lady and Emerald Lady \u2013 which had been docked in Burlington, Ia. \u2013 south on the river to Biloxi, Miss. Here, they were tied together and to a dock, becoming Mississippi\u2019s first dockside casino. The Isle of Capri \u2013 the first gaming establishment to trade on the NASDAQ \u2013 began Biloxi\u2019s transformation from a sleepy former seafood capital to a major southern gaming destination.<\/p>\n
Only a year later, Goldstein relocated the Diamond Lady and her landing barge (the Lucky Seven) to Vicksburg, docking them 200 miles northwest of Biloxi on the Mississippi to form a second Isle of Capri in Vicksburg, Miss. Finally, a year after that, in 1994, the Diamond Lady and her barge were replaced by a two-level, $18 million barge.<\/p>\n
Last Boat Leaving<\/h2>\n
To save on costly docking fees, Goldstein placed both the Diamond Lady and Emerald Lady in storage at the Harvey Industrial Canal in New Orleans. From here, he attempted to sell both vessels. He had more luck with the Emerald Lady, which sold in 1998 to Alan Bernstein, owner of BB Riverboats. As the Belle of Cincinnati, the former Emerald Lady still provides sightseeing cruises and dinner tours along the Ohio River.<\/p>\n
In either 2002 or 2003, the Diamond Lady and her landing barge were moved to McKellar Lake\u2019s Cummings Marine facility, owned by George Cummings. They were tied up there with Goldstein’s President Riverboat Casino, which he moved to Woodriver, Ill. a few years later.<\/p>\n
In October 2005, Mustafa Kilic, owner of the New Jersey-based Cornucopia Cruise Line, learned that the Diamond Lady was for sale and came by to kick the tires. Kilic claimed that her exterior was dirty and her interior needed refurbishing, but that her two Caterpillar 3412 diesel engines were in excellent shape.<\/p>\n
Kilic purchased the Diamond Lady from Goldstein for $300K, assuming title and risk of loss on Jan. 13, 2006, and signing a lease with Cummings that began four days later.<\/strong><\/p>\nGoldstein died three years later at age 80.<\/p>\n
We know all this because of a lawsuit filed by Cornucopia on Aug. 12, 2011, in the US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Cornucopia sued Cummings for damage the Diamond Lady sustained because of what it claimed was the marina\u2019s negligence.<\/p>\n