Tunica’s tale mirrors the fate of Reno and Atlantic City and other cities that depended on tourism to drive casino revenues. Tunica and the other river county casinos in Mississippi will lose even more of their customers to Arkansas casinos over the next year or two. Now, Southland is undergoing a $250 million expansion and its revenue is certain to increase significantly. It generated over $200 million in win in 2018. Even before it added table games, Southland had slot machines. Southland Gaming & Racing in West Memphis is the closest to Tunica. Two racetracks opened as full-fledged casinos on April 1 st. Six months ago, Arkansas approved four casinos. For Tunica, the most recent competition is coming from Arkansas. Like all states with gaming, Mississippi faces more competition in 2019 than it did in 1990 or even in 2005. Certainly, the business environment is never static, and competition is one of the major forces in any industry. However, nothing in the economy or business stays the same over a period of decades. In general, they think of in terms of today’s problems and apply today’s solutions. Mississippi lawmakers were not alone in their shortsightedness lawmakers tend to think in the present tense. Twenty-nine years ago no one was thinking about competition from neighboring states or any of the other changes that occurred in those years. Hotel overall smelled of marijuana.When Mississippi legalized riverboat gambling in 1990, legislators were interested in tax revenue, rejuvenating the poorest regions of the state and the economic boost that jobs, construction and tourism would bring to the Magnolia State. Carpets throughout the hotel were dirty and bleached out in several places. There was about an inch of dust on the headboards. Pool was closed and I was told it’s been closed for years, but was told differently when I booked this location. Went back downstairs to inquire again about adjoining rooms and was told that none were available (after I requested this and was told that is what we we booked). Went up to the rooms to find that they were next to each other but not adjoining. I requested adjoining rooms and was told at check in that we had adjoining rooms.

We only stayed one night and had to get a total of six new key cards because they wouldn’t work after the first time. I went down to get a new key card and she again acted as though I was inconveniencing her. Then sent me upstairs with a room key that didn’t work. When she finally helped me, she was rude and told me ‘you shouldn’t have brought kids to a casino, we don’t really like kids at this location’. Waiting over 30 minutes to check in while Madelyn at the front desk had a personal conversation about her upcoming weekend plans.

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