written and last updated by
Sam Smith at
24 Feb 2023
Journalist, Editorial Department
The Emerald Queen, once an iconic riverboat casino for the Puyallup Tribe in Tacoma, has a new owner and has been towed to Seattle. The nearly 100-meter vessel was sold to Spectral Crane and Marine, a company specializing in barge rentals and marine equipment, although the details of the transaction remain undisclosed.
The Emerald Queen operated as a floating casino from 1997 to 2004 and is set to be repurposed. Boyer Halverson, the owner of Spectral Crane and Marine, mentioned in a phone call on Thursday that plans for the ship are still in the works, but it may be converted into a barge. When asked about the sale price, Halverson replied, “Oh, I can’t disclose that. I can tell you that I probably paid too much.”
In 2004, the Port of Tacoma planned to close Alexander Avenue for expansion, forcing the riverboat casino docked nearby to cease operations. The owners relocated their gaming activities to their hotel in Fife. By the late 2010s, construction began on a separate $400 million casino (over 35 billion rubles at current exchange rates).
The Emerald Queen, a four-deck vessel with a footprint of 65,000 square feet, was built in 1995 in Louisiana at a cost of $15 million (over 1.3 billion rubles today). The Puyallup Tribe invested a total of $21 million (over 1.8 billion rubles) to acquire the Queen and transform it into a riverboat casino capable of accommodating 2,000 guests.
“The riverboat served our tribe well and laid the foundation for the opening and operation of two major casinos in the Northwest,” stated the Puyallup Tribe Council.
Meanwhile, a new Broadway-style theater is set to open at Star Casino in Sydney.
