Dave Berman

FLORIDA TODAY

Lester Bullock is betting on his business continuing to grow.

The chief executive officer of Victory Casino Cruises is posting record passenger counts on his gambling ship that sails twice a day from Port Canaveral.

And, within two months, Bullock plans to deploy a second gambling ship — this one in the Jacksonville area.

The success of the Victory I ship at Port Canaveral doesn't just help Bullock's company and its 450 local employees. About 85 percent of the ship's passengers come to Port Canaveral from at least 50 miles away, and many stay at local hotels and eat at local restaurants, further boosting the Space Coast economy.

"We are definitely an economic engine, driving people to Port Canaveral," Bullock said. "We have buses going everywhere" to pick up passengers for the gambling cruises.

"Business has been excellent," Bullock said, with more than 1,000 passengers a day now spending an afternoon or evening aboard the Victory I.

Many are there for the 630 slot machines. Some for the 29 table games like craps, roulette and a variety of card games. Others for the sports gambling.

But Bullock and his team also are finding success with entertainment programming that supplements the gambling on the ship.

Victory Casino Marketing Manager Pete Lynch said the programming is tied to the day and hour of the cruise. For weekday day cruises, when the average age of patrons is about 60, there will be music from the '50s and '60s. Weekday night cruises typically draw a 35- to 50-year-old crowd, so the music shifts to reflect the younger audience. On Friday and Saturday night cruises, when there are more college-age passengers, disc jockeys will be playing the latest club music in the ship's Big Norm's Club V.

Lynch also schedules Latin and Asian days on the ship, with music and food to complement the theme.

"We try to cater to every audience group," Lynch said.

Cora Tolman of Melbourne is a fan of the ship. Tolman is a regular customer, taking cruises three or four times a week — sometimes twice on the same day.

"Everyone's nice and friendly and very helpful," said Tolman, who was sailing on the ship's day cruise on Monday.

Also on that cruise were sisters Louise Remm of Cape Canaveral and Carol Frank of Davenport.

They sail about once a month, and play the slots. But they also like the other ship amenities.

"There's good entertainment," Frank said, as they were listening to a musician playing island-themed music in the outdoor Dolphin Bar area on the top deck of the four-deck ship prior to the 11 a.m. sailing. "There's plenty to do."

While not having quite the cache of the mega-cruise ships that are based at Port Canaveral, the Victory I does bring in revenue to the port. Bullock said every passenger coming up the gangway onto the ship means another $7 in revenue to the port.

The ship's passenger counts are up 24 percent during the first half of the port's current budget year that began in October, compared with year-earlier figures. If passenger counts remain steady for the second half of the year, port will receive about $2.3 million in revenue from Victory this year.

Bullock said his company also spends $11 million a year on payroll and $2 million on marketing — including on 70 billboards throughout Florida.

"We're a marketing company," Bullock said. "We have to get people here."

With some Victory I's passengers coming to Port Canaveral from northern Florida and even southern Georgia, Bullock decided to operate a second gambling ship from Mayport, near Jacksonville.

Two months ago, he acquired the Aquasino, which previously operated as a gambling ship in the Boston area, and is in the process of renovating it at Port Canaveral's former Cruise Terminal 4. He hopes to finish the upgrades, install the slot machines and table games, and have it start operating in Mayport under the name Victory II by mid-June.

The Victory II will have a capacity of 640 passengers, compared with Victory I's 1,200, but can be expanded to 840 if the demand warrants. Bullock plans to increase his company's staff by 200 when the new ship comes into service.

Bullock said he tries to pay attention to every detail. On Monday, for example, he was checking out carpet samples for the Victory II.

"It's the quality of our product" that attracts customers, Bullock said, noting that Floridians have a number of other gambling options, including land-based casinos operated by the Seminole Tribe, horse racing, greyhound racing, jai alai, poker rooms and the lottery. "I'm neurotic about our product."

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday.com Follow him on Twitter at @ByDaveBerman