Someone asked a foreign visitor what he had done the night before. “I played BINGO OH BLEEP,” he replied.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a game where a man reads off a bunch of letters and number until one person yells, “BINGO!” and everybody else shouts, “Oh, BLEEP!”
That’s what I was thinking about when we cut through Fairmont cemetery after cruising through New Lorimier. As soon as we crested the hill, we couldn’t believe how many cars were parked at Bingo World. The lot perimeter was parked two deep and the street in front had cars parked for at least a block in each direction. More cars were pulling in all the time.
In 2010, the Bingo folks were concerned that the new Isle Cape Girardeau Casino would siphon off their business. Looks to me they’re holding their own.
How’s the casino doing?
We decided to swing by the Casino to see what its parking lot looked like. The Missourian had a June 12, 2013, story that said that attendance had dropped off sharply – 42% – in May from a peak of 123,000 in March. Not only was attendance down, but the average stay per patron was shorter.
The parking lot in front of the main entrance sure had a lot of empty spots.
Look to the left
They have huge parking lot, so maybe I didn’t capture the part where the cars parked. Here’s a view to the north lot area. Not exactly packed.
Look to the right
How about to the right? There were a few more cars on the south side. And, to be fair, I counted about 13 cars to the right of the frame in another photo.
Still, I have to ask myself, how many of those belong to employees? I would bet it takes a whole lot more people to staff a casino than a bingo hall.
I wonder if we can get the shoe factory back?