If you all do not rember two weeks before christmas in 2009 the Sun Cruize operations closed boats in Mayport, and Daytona, and other areas leaving 600 employees unemployed.
Recently some of the people that operated Sun Cruize have managed to open a new company called Jacks are Better and are planning a return of a casino boat in Mayport.
My hats go off to the new owners, and people behind making the ship a possibility.
However why not open a noramal land base casino in Jacksonville?
The boat while I am sure will do well. As really there is no compition in the area for a casino. You have to drive to the Hard Rock, or go to a internet cafe, or you can go to the Poker Rooms in Orange Park at the Dog racing track.
You can bet horses and dogs there also.
If someone was bright they would open a 24 hour land base casino in Jacksonville.
With the boat you have to sail out to international waters, about 3 miles out.
It takes about an hour each way, than you gamble for 2 or 3 hours.
You have to deal with weather conditions, tides, waves and other factors as well.
With a land based casino you can have returants, hotel, bar, night club, entertainment, shopping and a whole lot more. A small casino in Mayport would not be that hard to construct and parking is availalble. If you go out and look at all the fenced off areas that are availalble right on the river front.
While a casino boat may employ up to 100 people, a small casino could employ upwards to 5000 employees. Some of the larger casinos in Vegas employ more than this amount.
Also look at the history of casino boats in Florida:
In 2004 the Florida Gaming Commission stated 17 boats operated in Florida.
In 2008 the number was at 14.
In 2009 the commssion stated that less than half of that number survived.
Some of the companies that have gone down:
Sun Cruze Casino, Horizions Casino, Treasure Island Casino, and more are listed.
Many of these companies in bankruptcy or just closed the doors.
One company called The Big "M" Casino still operates out of Fort Myers area.
A land Based casino would draw from the local population as well as being a tourist attraction. While the casino boat attracts locals, and can be seen as a tourist attraction it does not operate 24 hours a day or 7 days per week.
The Last ship sailed Wed to Sundays two times a day, and I understand the new company is going to follow the same format.
With the boat you have expenses like gas, wear and tear on the boat, sanitation,
employee training in case of emergency, and other factors as well.
I hope that the new company does well but would like to see some one stand up and say lets open a land base casino here in Jacksonville!
The Outlaw Micheal Tomsik
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment