Big Trouble In The Big Easy

It was quick, slick, and quintessential Chris Hemmeter. In the fall of 1991, Daniel P. Robinowitz, a Dallas-based developer and New Orleans gambling maven, was set to sign a deal with Mirage Resorts Inc. to build a casino if, and when, one was approved in New Orleans. On the eve of the signing, Hemmeter, eager to get a foothold in the nascent Louisiana gaming market, swooped into Dallas aboard his private jet to make Robinowitz a generous counteroffer. Within hours, Christopher B. Hemmeter was in and Mirage was out.

At the time, it seemed like a major coup for the 55-year-old Hemmeter, a flamboyant but soft-spoken developer of luxury resort hotels. He had amassed a $200 million-plus fortune building Disney-style megaresorts in Hawaii in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1991, he had concluded that the Big Easy would be the next great gambling haven. Armed with Robinowitz' political contacts and $140 million in junk-bond financing, he launched his $223 million River City casino project last March.