Montauk To Float A Casino

The Viking Starliner, newly renovated to meet Government standards for carrying gambling equipment, will leave her berth in Montauk Harbor next week and head for Federal waters with a cargo of 25 slot machines, 5 gaming tables, and up to 85 patrons who hope Lady Luck comes along for the ride.

The Viking Fleet's maiden "casino cruise," featuring cash bars, food, security, and a professional gaming crew, has been a long time in the making, according to Capt. Paul G. Forsberg, owner of the Starliner.

A change in Federal law late last year, Captain Forsberg explained, has sparked a nationwide explosion of interest in offshore gambling. He predicted a number of boats would soon be in the around-Long Island casino cruise business following the lead, last winter, of the Liberty I, which sails out of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn.

Prior to the change in the law, only foreign boats or vessels owned by Native Americans could carry gambling equipment onboard.

Opponents Cite Code

Even as the Starliner prepares to sail, however, the forces of opposition are mobilizing. Opponents of gambling this week cited chapter 60 of the East Hampton Town Code, which prohibits the possession of "any gambling device with the intent to use it in the conduct of a gambling house," defined as "any premises or establishment at which gambling is conducted . . . for profit."

A deputy town attorney, Richard Whalen, said he thought town police would have to act when the Starliner ties up in Montauk, even though the actual gambling will take place beyond town and state boundaries.

Throughout the fall, the 110-foot vessel is scheduled to leave Montauk Harbor at 7:30 p.m. daily except Mondays and travel four miles due east to the coordinates that mark the New York State/Federal border, returning at about 12:30 in the morning. The $20-per-person charge includes a $3 Federal gaming tax.

Foxwoods Alternative?

When cold weather sets in, the Starliner is scheduled to head to Florida to ferry gamblers offshore there.

"The change in the law is what opened Florida up," Captain Forsberg said. Just about every port in that state has at least one casino cruiser, he said, and larger ports like Tampa have two or three. The Starliner is being leased for gambling to C.G.S. Creative Gaming Systems, a Florida corporation.

Captain Forsberg called the cruises scheduled in local waters "just a trial." He said he saw the Starliner as an alternative to the enormously popular Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Conn.

"Why would you drive across Shelter Island to Orient Point to take a ferry and get on a bus when you can [gamble] right here? It's an hour away from Montauk and East Hampton," Captain Forsberg reasoned.

A Lee Harbor

He said he did not want to depend on summer crowds to make the Starliner a success. "That's why I waited until after Labor Day, to see the local demand."

Even though the Starliner was refitted to meet the Coast Guard's stability requirements, large ocean swells could add more roll to the dice in the waters off Montauk than most gamblers like. And, there is no shelter from the storm: Inside the more protected state waters, the one-armed bandits will have to keep their hand up.

As a harbor, Captain Forsberg said, Montauk has an advantage for casino cruises in this regard.

Not only is the state/Federal boundary close - just four miles from Montauk Point, running due north to a point four miles off Fishers Island - but the South Fork will provide "a bit of a lee" for the Starliner when the wind comes from the southwest, a prevailing direction during the summer, late summer and, sometimes, the early fall.

Ferries' Fate

The admiral of the fleet of party boats and passenger ferries made his announcement in the same week that the Town Board was discussing the future of ferries in East Hampton, and Mr. Forsberg's ferries to Block Island and New London, Conn., in particular. Under town law, the casino cruise is not considered a ferry.

There has been concern that a local ferry service taking gamblers to and from Connecticut gaming tables, would create the same kind of traffic problems experienced in Southold Town. The Orient terminal of the Cross Sound Ferry accommodates New York gamblers heading for Foxwoods.

Only last week the Town Planning Board asked the building inspector to determine if Mr. Forsberg's two ferries could be considered as pre-existing zoning. That story is covered in an accompanying article.

Montauk Memories

Mr. Whalen said Tuesday that Captain Forsberg's ferry service and his new casino cruises were separate issues, and that the zoning code viewed a gambling excursion in the same light as it did a fishing trip.

However, he reiterated, the language of the Town Code, which is separate, appears to prohibit the possession of gambling devices.

The coming of a casino boat has jogged the memories of some older Montaukers who recall when illegal gambling, like rumrunning before, was an open secret. Montauk gambling got its start during the Prohibition era and continued, at various times, into the 1950s.

On The Seaplane

One restaurant owner recalled that he and his father worked at the Island Club (later the Deep Sea Club) on Star Island in the early 1950s.

"The only thing they ever got them for was wire-tapping, because it used to be that when the troopers came and called in that there was gaming going on, they'd hear it upstairs. They'd roll up the stuff, the band would start playing, they'd put it on a seaplane, and the plane would take off."

"Later, they used a moving van."

Reservations for the gambling cruises are required, said Captain Forsberg, and may be made by calling the Viking Fleet.