Florida Casino Closed After Fish Aquarium Bursts

A casino located at the Gulfstream Racing and Casino Park in Hallandale Beach, South Florida is still shut after a centerpiece aquarium display holding 13,000 gallons of water and hundreds of fish cracked flooding the area.
At 12:15 on Sunday morning, around 100 people were hanging out on the second-floor near the  13 foot-high aquarium, when it suddenly cracked and as casino employee Lucille Sfalanga explains: “All we heard was a big bang and all the water started shooting out the top of the tank. It sounded like a cannon.”
Two minutes is all it then took for the huge tank to empty all but two feet of its salt water on the shop floor which subsequently poured downstairs raining on the slot machines and poker room below, even as gamblers scrambled for cover. The one piece of good news, however, was that 3,000 gallons of water remained in the tank, which was enough to provide refuge for its 100 fishy inhabitants, including nurse sharks, angelfish, lionfish and groupers. The aquarium maintenance crew were then contacted, and later carried the fish to safety, while casino employees set about mopping up the mighty mess.
Twenty-four hours later and the casino has remained closed as dehumidifiers and fans work overtime to remove water from drenched carpets on both floors. In the meantime, the Gulfstream casino is missing out on around $140,000 per day in lost revenue, while damage caused by the tank breaking may run into the hundreds of thousands. So far engineers have been unable to determine what caused the bizarre accident but General Manager Tim Ritvo did express his relief that nobody was injured.
Talking to the press, Gulfstream’s Director of Gaming Mike Couch commented: “We are currently assessing the damage and working on reopening the casinos. Our staff worked quickly to rescue all the fish and limit the damage. We will communicate the reopening of our casino to our guests as soon as possible.”