RE: The good ship Extro 1

From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Jun 03 2003 - 21:23:45 MDT

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    --- Emlyn O'regan <oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au> wrote:
    > Actually, a floating casino, in international waters, might just make
    > the thing profitable. I wonder how many of them already exist?
    >

    Most cruise liners have casinos on board, though they generally are
    only a small portion of the ship. There are also floating 'riverboats'
    in places like the Mississippi that are little more than barges with
    legislative protection rackets.

    I agree that a casino would definitely make it profitable, especially
    functioning as a base of online gambling via satellite as well. I am
    aware that Sean Hastings' "Seastead" project is also planning a similar
    but more sedentary enterprise, anchored >3mi off the coast of Gibraltar
    in the med (Sean was CEO of HavenCo, BTW), so Harvey's pooh-poohing of
    seaborne extropian projects is a bit tired. Patri Friedman, David's
    son, is involved in that project as well.

    Any such project needs to be of sufficient size to allow it to service
    a good number of customers to pay for the capital investment. The $4.5
    mil (or $10 mil project cost) I project for the aircraft carrier is
    generally in line with the cost of much smaller platforms with much
    less maneuverability, range, versatility, and carrying capacity. If
    they can put together viable business plans, then there is no reason at
    all that the Vengance cannot be made even more profitable.

    Besides, the Vengance has something all these other projects will never
    have: history. It IS a WWII relic that saw action. That gives it
    tourist cachet like putting a casino in, say, Versailles Palace.

    Casinos are money machines. There is a reason the mafia are always
    interested in getting involved in them, because it is so difficult to
    lose money with them. An owner of a casino can basically bankroll
    whatever agenda he or she desires...

    =====
    Mike Lorrey
    "Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                                        - Gen. John Stark
    Blog: Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com
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