Grand Opening for Lumiere Place Hotel and Casino in St. Louis, Missouri

If you stand atop Laclede's Landing on the riverfront in St. Louis, Missouri, you can see the arch and the historic Eads Bridge to your right. To your left there once was a large empty space that was overgrown with weeds and broken glass. If you walked further on down to the river, being careful not to stumble on the old cobblestone pavement, you came to a large silver boat. If it was a bright and sunny day you might have to adjust your glance a little bit or else be blinded by the sun reflecting off of the stainless steel hull.

In the past you had two choices if you wanted to go to a casino in downtown St. Louis. You could go to the aforementioned President on the Admiral or cross the Eads Bridge into Illinois and gamble on the other riverboat, the Casino Queen. When gambling was first legalized here in the state of Missouri, there was a stipulation that all casinos had to be floating on water. Maybe this helped calm some of those who had reservations about allowing it, or maybe it was out of a sense of nostalgia for the old days when gambling boats plied up and down the great muddy from here to New Orleans. Who knows? But that's all changed now as new land locked casinos are being built. (www.ksdk.com)

The Admiral started out back in 1907 as a wooden riverboat carrying cargo up and down the Mississippi River. Its original name was the Albatross. Then in 1937 it was bought by the Streckfus Steamers Company and was turned into an excursion boat. In 1940 the wooden decks were replaced with all of the stainless steel and it became the most modern, largest, and powerful boat on the river. In 1979 the boat was permanently moored and turned into a gambling casino. It went through some rough times and was recently bought by the owners of the newest casino in town: Lumiere Place. They haven't announced what they will be doing with it but the rumor is that it will end up on the scrap heap. (http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/admiral.htm)