Cape Girardeau residents voted to approve the construction of the Isle of Capri casino in downtown Cape Girardeau in November 2010. Now the finished $135 million casino is ready to open to the public at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 30.

Around the same time as the election in 2010, the Missouri Gaming Commission green-lighted a Missouri Economic and Research and Information Center Study that compared Cape Girardeau with other possible locations in Kansas City, Mo., and St. Louis for gaming licenses.

According to Missouri law there can be only 13 riverboat casinos in the state, and with the closing of the President's Casino in the summer of 2010, an opening became available. Cape Girardeau was the main choice for the Gaming Commission because it boasted a good location that was not saturated by other casinos.

The report projected that building an Isle of Capri casino in Cape Girardeau would bring $55 million in extra revenue to the state of Missouri and create 726 jobs for Cape Girardeau residents.

Marla Mills, the director of Old Town Cape, said many people are excited about the money the Isle of Capri Casino has brought and will continue to bring into the Cape Girardeau downtown area.

According to Mills, the Isle of Capri has employed over 700 people, and a majority of them are locals. She said that businesses should be aware that although there will more foot traffic and money in Cape Girardeau, that does not necessarily guarantee increased revenues for all small downtown businesses.

"It's hard to tell in the first few months [that the casino is open]," Mills said. "It may have a temporary negative effect on local businesses, but it is an overall positive economically for the community. The end result will depend on how local businesses react to the increase in people."

Dr. Bruce Domazlicky, professor of economics at Southeast Missouri State University, said that simple ideas of capitalism apply to the casino opening in Cape Girardeau. He said it's true that any new business will bring more people, but other businesses may suffer. People have limited incomes, and Domazlicky said it is unclear how much of an impact the casino will have until it's open, but if there is more foot traffic there will logically be more spending.

"People divert their other spending when they spend their money [at the casino]," Domazlicky said. "That creates some kind of offset, which though hard to measure, occurs in these situations. For example, people would instead of going to a movie, spend their money at the casino, which is good for the casino but not necessarily good for the movie theatre."

"The Isle [of] Capri wishes to help move the City of Cape's downtown revitalization vision forward," Mills said. "They have kept their promise to hire locally, and they will continue to be a good employer to Cape Girardeau residents by offering good benefits."

Mills said that the Isle of Capri Casino has been a helpful community partner, and they bring a lot of money and money can move city projects in the right direction.

She said that Isle of Capri Casino has helped fund the City of Cape Girardeau's Broadway Reconstruction Project, which was just finished in October.

According to Mills, Cape Girardeau only had funding for revamping the streets and Isle of Capri Casino helped fund new street lights, trash cans and plants along the Broadway sidewalk. She said the casino also is funding a comprehensive signage system in the downtown area.

"This will be an exciting moment for our company and for the Cape Girardeau community," Virginia McDowell, Isle of Capri president and chief executive officer said in a press release. "We are proud of the talented team we have put in place and thank the construction workers and tradespeople for their hard work and dedication. We greatly appreciate the level of enthusiasm shown by everyone at the City, the Chamber of Commerce, Old Town Cape and the CVB. We truly look forward to becoming a member of the vibrant Cape business community."