Abandoned Casino Ship where a Victim of a Mob once sailed, Remains in a Florida Dock: Pictures Revealed
Abandoned Casino Cruise Ship Once Belonged to Slain Businessman Gus Boulis
In the quiet of a Florida dock, the once-luminous Blue Horizon casino cruise ship now lies abandoned. This vessel was once part of the SunCruz fleet, owned by Greek immigrant and business tycoon Gus Boulis.
Boulis, who arrived in North America with nothing, worked as a dishwasher at a Mr. Submarine sandwich outlet in Toronto in the 1960s. By the age of 25, he had become a partner in the business and helped expand it into a chain with 200 outlets, making him a millionaire.
In 1994, he purchased the ship, The Winston Churchill, for $2 million, and SunCruz was born. The Blue Horizon, known as SunCruz VI, joined the fleet, equipped with slot machines and gaming tables with casino chips.
However, Boulis' journey took a dark turn. In 2001, he was murdered by the mafia while sitting in his car. Prosecutors later argued that Gambino mobster Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello had Boulis killed because he was trying to wrestle control back of the fleet.
Boulis had agreed to sell the fleet to Jack Abramoff and his associate Adam Kidan for $147.5 million. Interestingly, it was Kidan who brought Moscatiello into the deal. Abramoff and Kidan were later imprisoned for fraud over the deal.
As part of a settlement with the US government, Boulis agreed to pay $2 million in fines and to divest himself of the SunCruz fleet over the ensuing three years. The fleet passed through a succession of owners and went through several name changes, but it rarely sailed as a casino cruise ship for more than a couple of months with each new owner.
The Blue Horizon last sailed in 2016, before its owner, PB Gaming, went bankrupt. The consortium that took over Blue Horizon after PB Gaming's bankruptcy consisted of several private investors and industry stakeholders, but the exact detailed composition has not been publicly disclosed before the company was shut down.
Photographer Leland Kent has captured extraordinary images of the Blue Horizon for his books and website, abandonedsoutheast.com. The ship, now a ghost of its former self, stands as a testament to the life and times of Gus Boulis, a man who came from humble beginnings to build an empire, only to have it tragically cut short.
Read also:
- Recognition of Exceptional Patient Care: Top Staff Honored by Medical Center Board
- A continuous command instructing an entity to halts all actions, repeated numerous times.
- Is it possible to receive the hepatitis B vaccine more than once?
- Transgender Individuals and Menopause: A Question of Occurrence?
