In a seven-year study of new experimental colleges, Grant and Riesman (1978) report that within those schools "The utopian impulses are strong, representing a search for a more perfect union." One of the most radical of those experiments was Minnesota Metropolitan State College (MMSC). In addition to having no campus, the school had no classes, no grades, no academic terms, and no lower division courses. This article is an historical ethnography of the early years of that utopian experiment and its radical educational innovations. It focuses on President David E. Sweet (the "Riverboat Gambler" in the title of this article) and his band of "committed amateurs and well-trained professionals," who forged a charismatic community. A devout Christian Scientist, Sweet rejected the idea that creating heaven on earth was just a figure of speech. As a matter of faith, he believed that the Kingdom of Heaven has the spiritual potential of manifesting itself in the present--in particular, at Metropolitan State.