- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
Casino A Sure Bet To Attract THEM To Cape
Some folks feel that a Casino is the work of The Devil and that no good can come from having one in downtown Cape Girardeau.
They think that if a casino were to set up shop in downtown Cape that people would be taking their paychecks directly to this establishment and squandering it away on games of chance rather than spending that money on necessities like rent, car payments, utilities, groceries and tithing.
Ok, I won't dispute that fact. There is a possibility that some people will do just that.
Once when I was in Las Vegas, I went to The Orleans, an off-The-Strip casino that caters to locals. It was a Friday night and I had tickets to see a comedian who was playing there. I was amazed to see at least 30 people waiting in line at the payroll check-cashing counter. I don't doubt that some of them left a large part of those checks at The Orleans that evening.
But that's Them. That's not Us. There are always some of Them everywhere you go. You know who the Thems of the world are. They're the ones who can't control themselves or don't think two seconds into the future.
They're like those people who are smoking a cigarette while talking on their cell phone at the same time they're filling up their idling vehicle's gas tank. Clueless. And sometimes it takes an ensuing fireball to make them stop being clueless.
The same can be said for casinos.
Oh sure, a fraction of the people who go there might gamble away their life savings and go bankrupt and start drinking and lose their job and become homeless and accidentally pass out on the train tracks and get run over by a Burlington Northern headed south, but that's Them. It's not Us.
I would wager (8 to 3 odds) that if Cape were fortunate to get a casino, the vast majority of local people going to it would just be shifting around their personal entertainment budget. Rather than getting dinner at Outback and catching a movie, they might get a hot dog at the casino snack bar and play some blackjack.
But of course, the local people aren't whom any smart casino operator would be targeting.
A smart casino operator would be targeting Them.
And when I say Them, I'm not talking about the aforementioned clueless people or those with gambling problems. There's no point in targeting those people. They'll just show up to a casino, mesmerized by its bright lights like children to the Pied Piper. They're what gamblers call a "sure thing."
No, if a casino would open in Cape, the Them I'm referring to are our neighbors to the east in Southern Illinois. Now, I know some of you might wonder why that state's residents would bother to come to Cape to gamble. After all, they've already got a casino in Metropolis. That is true.
But we have a couple "secret weapons" that I feel are the marketing equivalent of the atomic bomb.
First, Illinois bans smoking in all public places including CASINOS. Missouri does not. That means a Missouri casino would be considerably more appealing to smokers who also like to gamble.
Secondly, Missouri has almost ridiculously low "sin taxes." For instance, our state has the second lowest cigarette excise tax in the country at 17 cents a pack. Only South Carolina is cheaper. In comparison, Illinois currently taxes cigarettes by almost a dollar a pack and the state is seriously considering doubling that tax.
Missouri also has the second lowest tax on beer nationwide. Illinois is 26th. In addition the Show-Me-State has one of the lowest liquor tax rates in the country, less than a quarter of what Illinois assesses. And Missouri's excise tax on wine is a third of the Land of Lincoln.
I'm a big believer in playing to your strengths. If Cape is fortunate enough to get a casino, then we should not ignore the fact that our state has extremely low excise taxes or that we have no statewide ban of smoking in public. It gives us an advantage and we should promote them to the hilt.
Come To Cape Where Your Fun Goes Farther!
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