ECONOMIC IMPACT OF GAMBLING WILL DEPEND ON THE LOCAL BUSINESSES

If projections of at least 800,000 visitors and more than 600 new jobs when riverboat gambling comes to Cape Girardeau hold true, there will be a positive economic impact on the city.

But to what extent a business will benefit will likely be determined by how they go about courting the increased visitors.

"There will be an impact because of the influx of additional people, but how significant that is, will depend on local businesses and the local community," said City Manager J. Ronald Fischer. "If business people take steps toward marketing that additional traffic flow, they can make a lot more out of it.

"I don't think any of us should think a bus load of people that stops here to take a cruise will also stop and shop and eat. We are going to have to create an incentive for these people to use our services and facilities, and come to our motels, restaurants, and shops."

John Mehner, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, agrees that it will be up to the business community to try and take advantage of the increased traffic.

"This will not be the savior to everybody located in the downtown area; you still will have to know how to run a business and do it properly," said Mehner. "There are an awful lot of folks that will come in, gamble and leave.

"It does increase traffic and when your traffic increases your business should increase a little."

But Mehner agrees with Fischer that businesses will not accidentally benefit from riverboat gambling simply because they are in town.

"I think the community is going to have to market that influx of people," said Fischer.

The city manager said he recently visited Metropolis and talked with some business owners who explained how they had to do some remodeling and offer some promotions to specifically attract people coming to ride the boat.

Fischer points out that Cape is considerably different from Metropolis because it has a mall, regional shopping and other facilities, and the university. There is a greater potential benefit. But the success in getting people to stop will rest primarily with individual business owners.

Mehner said probably the best benefit Cape will receive is the increased tax dollars that come from gaming taxes, increased property taxes and sales taxes on purchases by visitors.

Mehner believes businesses that will thrive the most are those that deal with transient visitors like small shops with souvenirs and restaurants.

One of the big concerns of some local business owners, particularly in retail and food service businesses, is whether the higher wages that boat operators tend to pay will make it difficult for businesses to keep workers in other parts of town.

Mehner says worries about a loss of workers is "a valid concern. If the boat comes here and offers jobs reasonably close to full-time that pay as well as they say they are going to pay, a vast majority of those jobs will be filled by people upgrading. It can be bad for existing businesses because they have to replace those people and there is a possibility of a shortage of people for those jobs."

Higher salaries paid by a boat operator could also drive salaries up for other businesses in town, which many cannot afford.

Mehner points out that the Missouri Division of Employment Security Office in Cape is taking a look now at how to deal with the program. "There are things that can be done with high school kids, partnerships at the university and with senior citizens to increase the size of the labor pool," noted Mehner.

He added that the problem is no different than when an employer like M&W or Dana comes to town offering better paying manufacturing jobs. "Anytime a large number of better paying jobs come to a community, this is what you expect," said Mehner.

"I still hold to the overall benefit of this, but people have to understand some of the side affects that come with this."

On the other hand, the opportunity for higher wages and more jobs means that people have more money to spend in town.

Thus businesses like furniture stores and car dealers that are less likely to benefit from increased visitor traffic of riverboat gambling would gain from this.

Because of the visitors that are brought to town by the gaming industry, Mehner believes the overall economic impact on the community of a successful boat operation will be greater than with another type of industry.

"We are projected to have 1,800 to 2,000 visitors on the average each day. Anytime you do that, you not only have the benefits from additional employees, but the people who come here as visitors will buy gas, eat in restaurants, and potentially spend money in the community," said Mehner.