The $450 Million “Love Boat”: Billionaire Ambassador Stuns Italy With His Floating Empire

Tilman Fertitta — the billionaire owner of the Golden Nugget hotel and casino chain, the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant brand and the Houston Rockets basketball team — has made little effort to hide his vast personal fortune since being appointed U.S. ambassador to Italy at the beginning of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, The Daily Beast reports.

His most extravagant diplomatic tool is his luxury superyacht, Boardwalk. The 69-year-old businessman hosts lavish receptions aboard the vessel as part of his own “Coastal Diplomacy Tour,” hoping to build relationships with influential figures across Italy.

It is hardly surprising that the yacht has already been dubbed the “Love Boat.”

The floating palace is estimated to be worth $450 million. On board are two helipads, two swimming pools, a spa, a gym and even a dedicated diving room.

But Fertitta’s spending does not end there.

When the billionaire arrived in Italy last year, he spent more than $2 million of his own money renovating Villa Taverna, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador in Rome.

And his current two-and-a-half-month cruise aboard Boardwalk, timed to coincide with the celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary, is expected to cost him another $1 million, according to his own estimate.

Fertitta’s fortune exceeds $11 billion, and his unconventional approach to diplomacy has sparked both admiration and fierce criticism in Italy.

A Billionaire in the Diplomatic Service

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto believes Fertitta’s wealth and personal connections could work in Italy’s favor.

“From our point of view, his biggest advantage is that he loves Italy and feels a deep connection to it,” Crosetto said.

The ambassador also has another powerful asset: Donald Trump’s respect.

“He is one of the few people who can call him and talk to him for half an hour about absolutely anything,” the Italian minister noted.

On one occasion, Fertitta even used his connections — and his money — to arrange a phone call between Crosetto, a huge basketball fan, and NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.

But not everyone in Italy has been impressed by diplomacy conducted from a billionaire’s yacht.

“It’s Indecent”

Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, believes Fertitta has crossed the line.

She noted that U.S. ambassadors can indeed use their own money to improve official residences, but said that conspicuous luxury on this scale appears inappropriate.

“But to flaunt it to this degree?” she said. “When I found out he was traveling around on this yacht, my first reaction was: this is indecent.”

Italian lawmaker Angelo Bonelli has also lashed out at the American ambassador’s lavish lifestyle.

He described such an overt display of wealth as “downright disgusting,” arguing that this kind of spectacle simply “doesn’t work” in Italy.

That became particularly apparent in Venice.

When Boardwalk docked there last month, Fertitta was met by protesters carrying signs reading “Billionaires Are Not Welcome Here” and “Venice Is Not the United States.”

For a city that has spent years grappling with the consequences of mass tourism and an influx of ultra-wealthy visitors, the arrival of a giant yacht worth nearly half a billion dollars became an especially painful symbol.

Fertitta Is Convinced Italians Love the Luxury

The billionaire himself, however, does not believe he has made a diplomatic misstep.

On the contrary, he is convinced Italians appreciate his larger-than-life approach and his conspicuous attention to the country.

“You have an ambassador with a certain status, and Italians like that,” Fertitta said.

In his view, local residents enjoy knowing that they are important enough to the United States for the American ambassador to sail into their city on his own enormous yacht, invite them aboard and personally demonstrate his respect.

That, Fertitta says, is diplomacy.

The problem is that to some, his $450 million “Love Boat” represents American influence, generosity and high-level engagement. To others, it is a floating embodiment of conspicuous inequality.

And as Boardwalk becomes ever more luxurious, the question being asked with increasing volume in Italy is a simple one:

Where does diplomacy end — and the flaunting of a billionaire fortune begin?