Tunica Casino Flooding 2018
Posted By admin On 19/03/22JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Caesars Entertainment will close a second casino in Mississippi’s Tunica County, as the region’s years-long decline in gambling revenues continues to weigh on business.
With almost 9,000 jobs in the county’s $750 million gaming sector, casinos are the center of attention in Tunica. People come from hours away to visit the “Casino Capital of the South. The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for the Mississippi River at Tunica Park Minor flooding from Tunica Lake left streets covered in water, and if the Mississippi River. Receding Mississippi River floodwaters are allowing casinos in Tunica, Miss., to get back to business. MGM Resorts International said Tuesday it would reopen the Gold Strike at 10 a.m.
The Las Vegas-based casino behemoth announced Tuesday that it will close the Tunica Roadhouse Casino at the end of January, citing “persistent declines in business levels in the area stemming from increased competition.”
The move will leave the county just south of Memphis, Tennessee, with seven gambling halls. Caesars will keep open the 135-room hotel attached to Tunica Roadhouse, operating it with its neighboring Horseshoe Tunica hotel and casino.
Regional president Scott Barber said in a statement that the move was an effort “to appropriately position our business for the current market opportunity and ensure the long-term viability of our remaining operations in the vicinity.”
The Mississippi Gaming Commission reported in October that Tunica Roadhouse had 377 casino employees and 36 hotel employees. Caesars said employees would get hiring preferences at other company-owned casinos including the neighboring Horseshoe, and that workers who are laid off would get job search assistance and training. Some employees at Tunica Roadhouse are unionized, and Barber didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether the company was bargaining with the union.
Caesars closed the massive Harrah’s Tunica Hotel & Casino in 2014 when it was in bankruptcy. The company shed $16.3 billion in debt while it was being reorganized before emerging last year.
Tunica County boomed when gambling was legalized in 1992, becoming the only gambling destination for hundreds of miles. But employment at casinos peaked at 13,000 jobs in 2001, falling to less than 5,000 now, and revenues have been falling since 2006. Tunica Roadhouse has the smallest casino floor among its competitors and the fewest slot machines.
Tunica has suffered in part because of increased gambling competition in Arkansas and other states. Arkansas voters earlier this month approved a referendum allowing four full-fledged casinos, including one at Southland Park Gaming and Racing in nearby West Memphis. Arkansas tax figures show Southland won $222 million from gamblers in the 12 months ended June 30, up more than 50 percent since 2014.
The closure means less tax revenue for state and local governments. Tunica County has struggled with declining tax revenue, with county supervisors having to step in and subsidize a full-time fire department that protects the unincorporated area of the county that includes the casinos because property tax collections fell after Harrah’s closed.
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ON-EDIT:
10:00am of May 18th was the re-opening of the Gold Strike in Tunica after dealing with record flooding.
Yes. Free drinks. And I've been told by several people that its very easy to get meal comps even for minimum play.
My local Indian casino here in Florida has a Floorman who spent several years in Tunica and recommends the Gold Strike. Ofcourse he is biased because he used to work there but some poker regulars at the local Indian casino all favor the Gold Strike too.
I've been to Tunica once when I was living in St. Louis. It's about a 5 hour drive away and has a good variety of table games. We spent a night in Memphis and a night in Tunica. I had the best run of poker in a cash game that I ever have had, so I have good memories. And the drinks are free, which I hadn't found outside of Vegas.
Now that I'm living in Chicago, it's too far for me to ever consider going to again, unless by some weird chance I happen to be in Memphis again.
They're barges, so they just floated above the flood. Once the water levels receed to the point where the parking lot is no longer covered, there's little to prevent them from opening.
You can see that the levee is working very well, keeping the swollen river out of the downtown area. The two riverboat casinos are near downtown but on the wet side of the levee, of course. They appear to be floating high, with their parking lots underwater. It looks as if they will be fine once the water recedes.
The third casino is south of town, near the bridge to Arkansas. It, too, is surrounded by water with its parking lots submerged. It appears to have been constructed on its own little patch of high ground, with a bit of a sea wall around it (though I can't really remember from my only visit whether that is actually accurate). If the water doesn't go much higher, even that casino should be fine.
The river was supposed to crest in Greenville yesterday, at a level higher than the great flood of 1927. Good levees can do a great job, provided the Corps doesn't decide that it is better to blow them up, sacrificing one area in an attempt to save another.
Tunica Casino Flooding 2018 October
I'd imagine the Tunica casinos and other MS and LA properties will have similar recoveries as the water recedes farther south. I hope everything is fixed up and operational by the time I'm in the area in mid-july!