The process of adjusting to a decreasing market can take a very long time Reno has been in that process for 25 years. Tunica will have to right-size itself to the available customer base and that probably means more casinos in Tunica will close. Gamblers, like all shoppers, prefer the casinos closest to home.

Tourist-based gaming markets have suffered more from the expansion of gaming than local-based markets. 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. 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.

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