We can think of no better place to begin our journey than by painting a picture of the history and heritage of riverboats and gambling. Until the Detroit Princess Riverboat’s arrival in 2005 the riverfront felt a tad bit empty, and we have happily filled the role as Detroit’s premier riverboat experience ever since.Published on: 3 June 2021 History of Gambling on Riverboats Claire and SS Columbia entertained Detroiters on the river, but they sadly were sold in 1991. For almost a century the Boblo Boats SS Ste.

When researching the options to bring a boat-style restaurant to Detroit, we really wanted to provide something that Detroit that had been missing since the late 1980s. After retooling, the vessel was ready to come home.Īlthough the boat may have been built in the Mississippi Delta in the early 1990s, the Detroit Princess has been well received from day one. The boat spent a number of months in Ohio being refitted to operate as a restaurant, adding a full kitchen with eight convection ovens, ten steam cabinets, ten movable heater cabinets, two walk in coolers, a fully functioning dish room, and serving kitchens on each level that would soon serve Detroiters and tourists alike. Lawrence Seaway to reach the Great Lakes and a temporary home, Toledo. The boat was too large to make its way through the northern portions of the Mississippi River, so it had to be towed around Florida, up the inter-coastal waterway, past Nova Scotia, and through the St. In 2004 we purchased the riverboat and the vessel made her first and last journey to her new home in Detroit. The owners had plans to scrap the boat, but at the final hour some folks up north decided to step in. The boat sat in Orange, Texas for a few years, not operating.

Harrah’s Hotel & Casinos eventually purchased the boat, bringing it back down south to Lake Charles, Louisiana where it ran as a casino boat for a number of years before being stripped of all its gambling decor and abandoned for a larger boat. It ran as a Merv Griffin establishment for a number of years, located on the Mississippi River in Metropolis, Illinois It was originally named the Players Riverboat Casino II and was built in Jennings, Louisiana in 1993.

The Detroit Princess has been entertaining Detroit in its current location since 2005, docked just downriver from Hart Plaza, but it has quite an interesting history prior to that.

Casino on a boat near me