Cruise industry sources say that "Australasian interests" are looking at the 9,800-gt casino cruiser Rex Fortune (built 1974) with an eye to buying and refitting the ship as a conventional cruiseship.
If the deal goes ahead, the ship would be renamed Southern Star.
The Rex Fortune’s operator Rex Global Entertainment Holdings ceased operating in May and the ship has since been laid up in Hong Kong.
The ship is best known as the Golden Odyssey, the pioneer vessel of Greek passengership mogul Pericles Panagopoulos’ Royal Cruise Lines. It was sold for use in the Hong Kong gambling trades in 2000, sailing under the names Omar III, Macau Success and finally Rex Fortune in 2014.
Ironically, it is Macau’s growing success as the region’s main gambling hub that has led to the Rex Fortune being withdrawn from service in the overnight gambling cruise business.
Asian cruise observers say the trade was initially hit by the development of large casino resorts in nearby Macau, but the death blow was dealt by Beijing a couple of years ago when it tightened anti-corruption and money laundering laws.
The casino ships have often been accused by Chinese authorities of being a convenient means for Chinese nationals to get their money out of the country. Customers can deposit cash into Chinese bank accounts linked to junket organisers in exchange for casino chips on board, which can then be cashed out in Hong Kong dollars.
The Rex Fortune is not the only casino ship to cash in its chips in recent months. China Cruises Co’s 20,300-gt China Star (built 1992) is also said to have ceased trading recently and is laid up awaiting sale. Built as the experimental Radisson Diamond, it is the only cruiseship ever built to have a small-waterplane-area twin hull cruiseship (SWATH) design.
The withdrawals leave Hong Kong with only two casino ships in operation, the 18,500-gt Oriental Dragon (built 1972) with Metropolis Cruise and the 15,800-gt Starry Metropolis (built 1976), which sails for recently-formed operator Veltinis International.
