Nearly five months after the Alton Belle casino started rolling on the Mississippi River, merchants in downtown Alton still peer out their windows, wondering when their ship will come in.
The law authorizing riverboat gambling rode through the Illinois legislature on the notion that it would bring economic development to depressed towns lucky enough to get one of the casinos.
Alton leaped into the water first, on Sept. 10. But so far, merchants said, no one except the boat`s owners have hit any jackpots.
”With the exception of the jobs (on the boat) and the increased head tax, I don`t think there`s a businessman on the street you could talk to who would say they`ve seen any increased business,” said Becky Wright, a former alderman who owns the Frame Shop in downtown Alton. ”I think everybody in general is disappointed,” Wright said.
Merchants said the boat has caused higher property taxes and has cut the number of parking spaces for patrons of downtown businesses.
Merchants acknowledge that the Alton Riverboat Gambling Partnership Inc. contributed $742,793 to the town`s treasury in 1991. Alton gets half the admission-tax receipts and a quarter of the gross receipts tax. The state gets the rest.
The boat provides jobs for about 600 people, but merchants said very few benefits have spilled over into their cash registers.
”We speculated on the boat,” said Scott Yarborough, who opened Dakota`s Grille and Bar in downtown Alton on Oct. 30. ”We expected the streets to be full.”
Yarborough now says that was a fantasy. ”We see some traffic (from the boat), but for the most part, we see five customers a day-10 a day, maybe,”
he said. ”It`s not happening.”
Charlotte Thomas, director of the Towata Art Gallery, said that the boat had ”positive potential” for the downtown businesses but that it was not likely to bring the kind of development that crammed itself into Deadwood, S.D., when that city went into the casino business.
”I don`t think this is the kind of town where you would blow a lot of money,” Thomas said.
But the potential is there, Thomas said. Alton has more than 50 antiques shops overlooking the Mississippi River, and the Towata Gallery offers fine art pieces costing up to $2,500 each.
John Reichert, marketing director for the Alton Belle, said the merchants should be patient and continue to promote themselves.
Sam Thames, president of the Alton Antique Dealers` Association, said merchants have seen one unwelcome byproduct of the casino: higher taxes.
”There`s been a couple of shops go out of business because they can`t afford that at this point,” he said.
Alton Assessor Julie Campbell said she had to re-appraise the downtown area last year as part of the assessment mandated every four years by law.
Some of the loudest complaints from merchants concern parking, however.
Casino patrons who don`t park in designated lots park in front of the shops along Third Street and ignore the two-hour parking restrictions. ”It`s difficult for our own customers to park downtown,” said Margo Radloff, owner of Stone Brothers Jewelers.
That`s a concern shared by Chris Durr, chief executive of the Army Surplus store. He complained that the gambling partnership misled the town.
”Originally, they painted a whole different picture,” Durr said. ”They talked about a 2,500-passenger boat” that would be a replica of an 18th Century paddle boat, he said.
What showed up at the docks was a stretched-out dinner boat with hot-pink awnings and appliques from the period. The Coast Guard licensed the vessel to carry 504 passengers and 60 crew members.
Betty Narin, who opened her ”From The Heart” restaurant in April, said merchants who are disappointed have only themselves to blame.
”I think we all expected a lot more,” Narin said. ”But that`s not to blame the Alton Belle, because I guess we just thought our ship was going to come in.”
