The Margaritaville story continues. With the yes or no vote coming up in just over two weeks, I have tried to get all of the facts that I can in order to help the readers of My Bossier make an educated decision.
Some concern has been expressed by commenters over the involvement of the city in the development. As previously noted, the city has to be involved in a couple of ways.
First of all, they owned the land just north of Bass Pro Shops where the casino and hotel will be located.
Second, the city will have to provide infrastucture for the development, as it would for any other development, be it a shopping mall, church or whatever.
The earliest projected costs, and at this point they are just projections, is about $5,000,000 for water, sewerage, a lift station and an intersection providing access to the casino/hotel. This would be recovered in projected taxes in a matter of months.
Another benefit that is showing up already, even before the vote, is that the other players in town are already stepping up their game. From physical improvements to existing casinos to better comp offers in an effort to cement their player bases, the proposed competition is already reaping some benefits.
Bossier City casinos are the city’s second largest employer, trailing only Barksdale Air Force Base. The casinos currently employ more than 3,500 people compared to Barksdale’s 10,000 plus.
Margaritaville will add an estimated 1,200 more positions.
Since casino gambling was approved in Louisiana in the 1990’s, the state has benefited by billions in tax dollars, and local governments across the state in hundreds of millions.
These are just facts, not a sales pitch for the Margaritaville development, although I have said that I support it. Some people believe that it will shut down or cripple other casinos. I don’t share that view.
If you are opposed to gambling through your moral or religious convictions, I have absolute respect for your opinion.
The fact is, however, that this is a legal and legitimate business in Louisiana and as such, the market should be allowed to operate freely.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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I am all for this project with the exception that if they allow land based gambling they should allow Harrahs La. Downs to have table games. Gambling is gambling whether it is in the water or on land, through a slot machine or by a table game. The exception being that the slots at Harrahs supplement the racing purses to draw more horseman to come here. Raising throughbreds and racing them is a big industry and it is not all about gambling. But if they allow land based gambling with Margariteville why not be fair and allow Harrahs the right to have table games also to improve the purses for horseman which draws the tourist industry and creates more jobs. After all La. Downs has made alot of money for Bossier City and Parish.
ReplyDeleteI see this as a positive. If Margariteville takes business from another casino that means they are doing something that folks like. That is how the market should work.
ReplyDeleteAs a person who leans toward the libertarian viewpoint, I whole-heartedly agree that gambling establishments should be able to open and operate freely. I think also that all the chemical substances which dysfunctional people use to destroy their lives should be regulated for purity and strength, regulated to protect children, highly taxed just like gambling, and then freely sold in drug and alcohol establishments. But even though I support freedom, neither the gambling interests or anyone else who cater to human frailty and dysfunction are going to make a loser out of me.
ReplyDelete(note to those who complain about being anonymous): It will not post with the user name that I use everywhere else, and says it contains forbidden characters
11:41 - it will be on a barge. Personally, I always thought the idea of riverboats was silly anyway, as if that makes it morally acceptable to those who object on those grounds.
ReplyDeleteKartman, full agreement.
ReplyDelete12:02 PM - also agreement. It is an individual choice.
In the Bossier Shreveport area, the current rate of unemployment is 6.7%. That's about 12,500 people in the Shreveport-Bossier area who are currently unemployed. 1,200 may be small in comparison to that figure but at least it is SOMETHING. Biggest facing America now is jobs. The candidates talk about it. This is just my thinking..but here we have an opportunity to add some jobs to this area.
ReplyDeleteTO: Anonymous 11:41 AM - It is my understanding that there will be a casino (boat) that will be coming to Bossier by way of the Red River from South Louisiana. It will not be a land based casino.
ReplyDeleteThe barge won't be coming up river. Ground up construction.
ReplyDeleteIf the powers that be in Bossier are so strongly for it there's got to be a rat somewhere. I'm votin NO!
ReplyDeleteHarrah's Casino has a billboard that opposes the new casino. That is SHAMEFUL! Here is a corporation that brings in nearly 30 million dollars per month (casino and racetrack), and they are showing their CORPORATE GREED by not wanting any more competition.
ReplyDeleteShameful, that they want to deny our citizens of 1,250 new jobs, nearly 1,000 construction jobs, and over twelve million dollars in additional annual revenue all because they are greedy. They are afraid of the competition, and are showing their lack of being a good corporate citizen. Isn't 30 million dollars a month enough?