STRICTLY BUSINESS: IT TAKES 'TIL MAY 6 TO EARN ENOUGH TO PAY TAXES

Millions of taxpayers are scrambling to meet Tuesday's midnight deadline for filing federal tax returns, and Uncle Sam is hoping everyone will make the deadline.

With all the options -- electronic filings, extensions for filing and monthly payment plans -- there is really no excuse for missing the filing deadline.

And when the millions of taxpayers have passed the final-day test Tuesday, they can look forward to "Tax Freedom Day."

Americans usually have to work about 125 to 127 days to pay the year's tab on federal, state and local taxes. That places the annual Tax Freedom Day May 6, 7 or 8.

It is a symbolic date when the average person finishes paying federal, state and local taxes if all earnings since Jan. 1 were turned over to the government for fulfilling tax requirements.

The tax bite in an eight-hour day is two hours and 47 minutes, according to the Tax Foundation, a research organization financed by a corporation, which annually established Tax Freedom Day.

In 1940, Tax Freedom Day was March 8. Thirty years later, and a quarter-century ago, in 1970, it had advanced to mid-April.

Many taxpayers will breathe a sigh of relief Tuesday after depositing their federal returns before midnight at post offices throughout the nation. More than 500,000 Missourians and millions of taxpayers nationwide still had not filed taxes going into the final weekend. Probably some filed over the weekend, but the majority of that half-million in Missouri probably waited and will make the trip to the post office Tuesday.

Post offices usually extend hours and provide late-mail pickup on tax deadline day.

Rolling on the River:

There was jubilation among gambling circles in Illinois following the 1995 annual report of the Illinois Gaming Commission.

Riverboat gambling became a billion-dollar industry in Illinois for the first time in 1995, as players bellied up to the tables and slots in record numbers, according to the Illinois Gaming Board's Annual Report.

The state's riverboats raked in adjusted gross receipts -- the total take after winnings are paid out -- of $1,178,311,827, an increase of 20 percent over the dollars that flowed into casino coffers in 1994.

This was good news for the gambling industry -- a sign of the health of the industry that grew from two boats in 1991 to 10 in 1995.

"The popularity of the riverboat casino continues to grow as a part of Illinois' entertainment industry," Gaming Commission Chairman J. Thomas Johnson said in a letter to Gov. Jim Edgar that accompanied the report.

A year and a new (1996) Illinois Gaming Board Report later has turned the jubilation to caution.

Riverboat casinos in Illinois are losing business, and their financial situation could worsen as out-of-state -- Missouri, Iowa and Indiana -- competition increases.

Decline in casino revenues

For the year that ended Dec. 31, gross revenues in Illinois' 10 casino operations declined about $47 million -- from $1.17 billion in 1995 to $1.13 billion last year. Total casino taxes collected declined about $8.6 million -- from $285.3 million collected in 1995 to $276.7 million collected in 1996.

The local share of casino taxes, which are 5 percent of the taxes on casino revenue and admissions, fell about $2 million since 1995.

At Metropolis, the closest gambling riverboat to Cape Girardeau, adjusted gross receipts were down 8 percent, from $83,395,759 to $76,663,166. Admissions to Players Riverboat Casino was down only 1.5 percent. A new riverboat casino -- Indiana's Casino Aztar -- opened at Evansville in December 1995. A slight drop in total admissions was reported each month from April through December.

Admissions in decline

The gaming board's latest monthly report revealed that Players admissions were down 18 percent in March, a drop from 172,569 in March 1996 to 140,028 last month.

Admissions were down at seven of the state's casino operations. Admission totals revealed 2.26 million last month compared to 2.35 million in March 1996. Admissions were down 12.1 percent at East St. Louis.

Adjusted gross receipts were down 12 percent from a year ago. March 1995 totals were $111,349 million versus $97,164 million in March 1996.

Meanwhile, the Empress Casino in Joliet lost the most business of any Illinois casino in 1996. That casino operation lost 17 percent of its business -- from gross revenues of $202.5 million in 1995 to $167.8 million last year.

Losses could continue

Adrienne Levitino, director of the casino industry group, the Illinois Gaming Council, predicts most casinos in Illinois could lose more business this year to larger casinos in surrounding states.

Gaming Board figures showed that business declined at the Alton Belle Casino last year but increased at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis.

A full year of gambling at the larger Station Casinos operation -- dockside with two casinos -- in St. Charles, Mo., apparently hurt Alton and East St. Louis casinos, said Levitino.

The Alton Belle last year saw an 11 percent drop in gross revenues and a 9 percent decline in the number of patrons -- about 200,000 fewer.

Gross receipts at the Alton Belle totaled $72.4 million in 1996, compared to $81.5 million in 1995. Local taxes paid to Alton declined 10 percent compared to 1995. Alton received about $600,000 less in gambling taxes last year than it did in 1995.

Unlike Alton, however, East St. Louis last year got more in casino taxes than it did in 1995. Last year, the city collected $10.5 million as its share of casino taxes, compared to $10.3 million in 1995. The Casino Queen had about 250,000 more customers last year than in 1995 and the Queen's gross revenue for last year -- about $128.9 million -- was about $900,000 more than in 1995.

But annual figures showed that despite record business in the first five months of 1996, the Casino Queen began showing a revenue decline the rest of the year. In December, for example, the Casino Queen collected about $500,000 less in receipts than it did in December 1995.

April report

April gambling statistics should be interesting now that the Riverport Casino Center in Maryland Heights, Mo., in the St. Louis area has opened.

The land-based Riverport Casino -- featuring four casinos (two each by Player and Harrah's) -- has been attracting good crowds and is expected to cut into business at St. Charles Station Casinos as well as Alton Belle and the Casino Queen.

Levitino says the annual report should wake people up to the need to change Illinois' gambling laws to make the state's casinos more competitive.

All Illinois casinos must cruise. In Iowa and Missouri, all casinos are exempted from cruising.

A bill has been introduced into the Illinois General Assembly for dockside gambling and elimination of the two-hour boarding limits. A bill in the Missouri Legislature to eliminate the two-hour boarding limits and the $500 loss limit every two hours.

Spire Freezers buys land

Spire Freezers Limited wants to join Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Co. in its new site at Sikeston.

Spire Freezers, also known as Atlas Refrigeration, provides a refrigerator warehouse for storage of Good Humor's ice cream products in other areas.

The Sikeston City Council approved a contract last week to sell 20 acres in the new Business and Technology Park to Spire Freezers, adjacent to the site of the new Good Humor-Breyers plant.

The contracts call for a price of $5,000 per acre, totaling $100,000 and includes an option to purchase 10 additional acreages.

The Good Humor-Breyers company, headquartered in Green Bay, Wis., announced in late February that it would expand its Sikeston operations with a 200,000-square-foot plant on a 40-acre site in the new business park five miles from the company's plant. The new facility will become the flagship of ice cream plants for Unilever Corp., which owns Good Humor-Breyers.

Good Humor-Breyers and Spire Freezers are the first two commitments for the city's new industrial park, which became available early in 1996 when the city purchased more than 600 acres along Highway 61 north of Sikeston.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.