What Next For The Mississippi Belle Riverboat Casino?

In 1994 The Robert Kehl family spent $14million on building a floating casino named the Mississippi Belle riverboat casino. This was to replace a former riverboat that they owned with the same name.

In 2006, continuing to operate on the Clinton riverfront, the Mississippi riverboat casino was sold on to Wild Rose Entertainment, however it's stay with the new owners would only be a brief one compared to the 22 years it had enjoyed with the Kehl family.

Come October 2007 the floating casino made its final cruise before ceasing operations with Wild Rose Entertainment opting for setting up a land-based operation on the west side of Clinton.

What now for the Mississippi Belle Riverboat Casino? In 2008, the Schadler family entered the scene. With its future looking uncertain, they acquired the boat for their family's Celebration River Cruises fleet and the riverboat was moved to Moline.

After 2 years with the Schadlers and their Celebration River Cruises the boat attracted interest from Cl Travel of Norfolk Va. Heading up a group of investors with a vision to pump new life into the boat with a makeover and change of identity, they bought the boat from the Schadlers with the expressed purpose to sink $3 million of their capital in to making various renovations. Their new little jewel would be given a new lease of life as a dinner cruise boat and renamed the Philadelphia Belle dinner cruise boat.

Whether they did significant research is questionable. The new operation got underway in the early part of 2011 with the Delaware River to be its new home. Gambling was now no longer the pleasure it offered its public, but a dining experience whilst cruising the river in an eight mile loop.

It took just a handful of months the writing was on the wall, the envisaged throngs of hungry dinners never materialised and in July 2011, Cl travel pulled the plug on their enterprise with the boat returned to the Schadlers who then put it on the market for $4.5 Million. What now awaits its future we wonder? We shall have to wait and see.