One of our distinct local pleasures is the ability to carry our beverages—including alcoholic—with us as we party in the streets in the so-called go-cup. It’s a New Orleans tradition, right? The go-cup has helped to establish New Orleans reputation as a non-stop party city, along with the fact that liquor and beer are legal 24/7. Just don’t take a bottle in the street, and God forbid the City Council ban go-cups!

Obviously, things change. And the days of New Orleans being the Go-Cup Capital of the World are going to be challenged by our neighbors to the east. Mississippi’s governor just signed a measure in late May that will allow drinking patrons the ability to carry and drink alcoholic beverages outside bars and restaurants.

It’s known as the “Go-Cup” bill, and it permits drinkers to carry and imbibe alcoholic beverages off premise of bars, clubs and restaurants in special “entertainment” districts where venues in that district can provide drinks in containers that can be taken off-premise. Under the new law, patrons must remain within the boundaries of the entertainment district while they are in possession of the alcoholic beverage. I think you can fully expect that the Mississippi Gulf Coast will be establishing a few of these districts fairly soon. The Gulf Coast’s appeal as a tourist resort (and now casino) destination is well-established, and this action will do nothing but help enhance that reputation.

Why let tourists wander off to New Orleans when they can provide music, go-cups, restaurants, beaches, boating and casinos in one place?

For those readers who can remember the shenanigans that ensued when the Louisiana legislature approved casino gambling in the state, and the local hospitality industry insisted that there be only one casino in New Orleans…well, we know where that ended up. The Mississippi Gulf Coast has casinos and casino/resorts galore that surely have siphoned off much of the gaming market from New Orleans.

First casinos, now go-cups. Oh yeah, and Mississippi has been seriously promoting its heritage of blues music in all of its tourism promotion. At least—for the time being—we can still walk down Frenchmen Street with a go-cup or a Hand Grenade at 3 a.m. Or will the drinking time limit be lifted too?

When Mississippi legalizes recreational marijuana, which is something the idiot state of Louisiana should have done long ago (we’ll be the last state in the union to do that); when visitors start decamping for what New Orleans has staked its reputation on to attract the least common denominator of visitor markets for too many years (drinking and partying every day, all the time), we may be losing even more tourists to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Strategies, anyone?