Collins’ gambling boat disappears off South Carolina harbor

Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 2:24 a.m.

The Tropic Sea, owned by video gambling magnate Fred Collins, had been up for sale, but Circuit Judge Vic Rawl also had ordered that sale not to take place.

The 383-foot ship has been in a legal battle with the State Ports Authority since last summer because the port would not allow the gambling ship to dock at its facilities. So the boat was anchored in the harbor awaiting the outcome of that court case.

But it was a legal battle with New York developer Donald Trump that garnered the order for the boat to stay put.

Before Collins bought the ship, it was named Tropicana, which is a registered trademark for Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Aztar, which owns those casinos, complained and the owners changed the ship's name to Saint Lucie.

When Collins bought the ship in 1994, he changed the name back to Tropicana and the ship made gambling cruises out of Miami until 1997, when Collins moved it to New York. Aztar sued Collins.

In 1998, Collins changed the name to Tropic Sea on a federal judge's order. The judge also ordered Collins to pay nearly $60,000 in legal and court fees, according to court records. Collins lost his appeal in March to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March.

Last week, Rawl ordered Collins and his broker not to sell the ship. The boat also was not to leave the harbor and Collins was to post a bond for the amount of the judgment. But the ship was already gone.

Telephone calls were not returned by the company leasing the ship from Collins, and Collins did not return telephone messages left at his Greenville office Tuesday and Wednesday.

Agents from Plant & Machinery Inc. of Houston, the company that handled the auction of the boat that was to be complete last Thursday, also could not be reached to say if the ship has been sold.

In another legal matter, a state Supreme Court appeal of Rawl's ruling last October that gambling cruises are legal under state law is still pending. The cities of Charleston and Mount Pleasant have passed ordinances banning certain gambling cruises, and the Legislature is considering a similar state law.