What not to do with your gambling revenue: the failure of Tunica, Mississippi

[Indy Texas]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/07/11/an-opportunity-gamed-away/?tid=HP_more

In the early '90s, Mississippi liberalized its gambling laws. Proponents said it would bring jobs, investment, and tax dollars to some of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states in America.

Nearly two decades later, the Mississippi Delta region has little to show for these efforts. The casinos never fully recovered from the 2008 recession; and tax revenue that could have been used to invest in education, healthcare and infrastructure was instead used on tax cuts for the wealthy and on perks for government employees.

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[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Atlantic City has been doing pretty poorly with Chris Christie.

[RFayette]

Morally questionable activity doesn't save a region?  Color me surprised!

[Simfan34]

"A county that the Rev. Jesse Jackson once described as “America’s Ethiopia” had..."

...

But yes, color me surprised that a windfall in such a poorly run place would be so poorly spent. This is almost exactly what you would expect for such a windfall to be spent on.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Atlantic City has been doing pretty poorly with Chris Christie.

Atlantic City has been doing pretty poorly for the last 40 or 50 years.

[ElectionsGuy]

Morally questionable activity doesn't save a region?  Color me surprised!

What's morally questionable about gambling?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Morally questionable activity doesn't save a region?  Color me surprised!

What's morally questionable about gambling?

Not really gambling itself, but the gaming industry. It tends to prey upon people who gamble with money they can't afford to lose. So long as people gamble with money they don't need, it's not any more objectionable than any other recreational activity people spend money on.

[Comrade Funk]

Atlantic City has been doing pretty poorly with Chris Christie.

Atlantic City has been doing pretty poorly for the last 40 or 50 years.

AC lost a lot of customers do to PA legalizing gambling, which was the only thing that brought the city an allure. Atlantic City was already a sh**thole.

[pbrower2a]

It looks like horrible priorities. The revenue practically all went either to show projects or to cutting taxes for the rich.

"So who benefited? The plantation owners!"

To be sure, the casino jobs paid badly, so they did not support a growth in retail businesses. Tax revenue did not get spent on such luxuries as schools, streets, or public health.

...Mississippi is one of the crookedest states in the Union because white people will vote for a white Republican crook over a black Democratic reformer and black people will vote for a black Democratic crook over a white Republican reformer. 

[Citizen Hats]

It looks like horrible priorities. The revenue practically all went either to show projects or to cutting taxes for the rich.

"So who benefited? The plantation owners!"

To be sure, the casino jobs paid badly, so they did not support a growth in retail businesses. Tax revenue did not get spent on such luxuries as schools, streets, or public health.

...Mississippi is one of the crookedest states in the Union because white people will vote for a white Republican crook over a black Democratic reformer and black people will vote for a black Democratic crook over a white Republican reformer. 

But Homer Stokes is the friend of the Little Man!

[DC Al Fine]

Morally questionable activity doesn't save a region?  Color me surprised!

[pbrower2a]

Morally questionable activity doesn't save a region?  Color me surprised!

What's morally questionable about gambling?

Not really gambling itself, but the gaming industry. It tends to prey upon people who gamble with money they can't afford to lose. So long as people gamble with money they don't need, it's not any more objectionable than any other recreational activity people spend money on.

Las Vegas gets a little bonus from gambling: it is far enough from other large cities that people who gamble much stay in Las Vegas. The nearest real city to the Las Vegas area is St. George, Utah. Greater Las Vegas gets the hotel and motel business of gamblers. Reno is much the same. But contrast some other cities that have turned to gambling: Atlantic City and Detroit practically get commuters who don't get tired and have to sleep over in those cities.

Tunica, Mississippi is in a God-awful area. Why would anyone from elsewhere want to stay there? Memphis has much entertainment. Surrounding areas in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee are very poor.  Tunica basically gets commuters as gamblers, largely from Greater Memphis. Atlantic City can draw upon Greater New York and Philadelphia. Detroit gets to draw gamblers from Rustbelt cities. Tunica?

Tunica got a boom from initial construction, but once that was over it got a low-wage, no-value-added business. It would have been better off with manufacturing.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Also Las Vegas has the benefit of being an early adopter who used that status to diversify.  Tunica never had a chance to do that.

[7,052,770]

To be fair, Tunica's pretty cool if you're into gambling. It's generally rated as the 4th best gambling city in America (behknd LV, AC, and Reno). Of course when I say Tunica, I mean the area miles outside of town that has like 10 casinos and literally nothing else.

Sure is a shame it hasn't helped the actual city much though.

[Indy Texas]

To be fair, Tunica's pretty cool if you're into gambling. It's generally rated as the 4th best gambling city in America (behknd LV, AC, and Reno). Of course when I say Tunica, I mean the area miles outside of town that has like 10 casinos and literally nothing else.

Sure is a shame it hasn't helped the actual city much though.

How would Tunica be a better place to gamble than, say, Biloxi/Gulfport, which has more or less the same quantity/quality of casinos, but with the added benefit of the beach and being not too far from New Orleans?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

How would Tunica be a better place to gamble than, say, Biloxi/Gulfport, which has more or less the same quantity/quality of casinos, but with the added benefit of the beach and being not too far from New Orleans?

Six hours further north for those getting there by car from points north. You can save two travel days in your journey to a full fledged land-based casino as opposed to those riverboat casinos Missouri and Illinois allow.  Also the relatively low gaming taxes allow Mississippi casinos to offer better payouts (not that they necessarily do).  The high rollers are going to go someplace other than Mississippi in any case.

[dead0man]

and the beaches in and around Biloxi aren't exactly great beaches.  Sure, if you just want "beach" then you've got it, but the water is murky, the sand is more like pebbles, Jefferson Davis's house is across the street (actually I think Katrina may have destroyed that).  The other side of Mobile Bay ain't bad, but that's a pretty good drive.

[Cubby]

In 10 years DeSoto County will be all filled with glorious tract houses and subdivisions. Then it'll be Tunica County's turn to grow fast, so all they have to do is wait for the growth to come to them. They better hope it doesn't bypass them and go to Tate instead.

[cinyc]

In 10 years DeSoto County will be all filled with glorious tract houses and subdivisions. Then it'll be Tunica County's turn to grow fast, so all they have to do is wait for the growth to come to them. They better hope it doesn't bypass them and go to Tate instead.

Interstate 69, when it is fully built, will definitely bring some sprawl into Tunica County.  It is partially built into Tunica County, but not very far in.  And the next section isn't going to be built until at least 2019, according to Wikipedia.

But I think even the bulk of DeSoto's growth is currently in the I-55 corridor and areas closer to the Tennessee border, not closer to the river along U.S. 61, which would be the more logical route to bring sprawl into more of Tunica County.  So more of the sprawl just might go to Tate County, along I-55, instead of to Tunica County.  When I-269 opens in the near future, it should also open up more of DeSoto and maybe even Marshall County to sprawl, which might delay any growth in Tunica County.  I doubt DeSoto will be anywhere close to all filled within 10 years.

[pbrower2a]

The local political leadership would have f---ed up had they instead gotten a windfall from oil extraction or refining -- except that Big Oil would have called more of the shots on local and state politics.

  

[DC Al Fine]

Morally questionable activity doesn't save a region?  Color me surprised!

What's morally questionable about gambling?

Not really gambling itself, but the gaming industry. It tends to prey upon people who gamble with money they can't afford to lose. So long as people gamble with money they don't need, it's not any more objectionable than any other recreational activity people spend money on.

To tack onto this, gambling addictions are fairly common, and if the state is encouraging gambling, either through running lotteries or legalizing it in an attempt to draw revenues into the state, then the state is is playing a role in the exploiting the poor, addicted, and vunerable. That is reprehensible.

It's a bit like if Mississippi started selling heroin from state owned stores to make money. Even if the funds are going to a good cause, the state is incentivised to encourage heroin consumption and is profiting from addiction and poor decisions.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

You mean relying on the gambling industry to regenerate a local economy failed? Shocking news. Shocking. I am shocked.

[Badger]

Jefferson Davis's house is across the street (actually I think Katrina God's will may have destroyed that). 

[Cubby]

In 10 years DeSoto County will be all filled with glorious tract houses and subdivisions. Then it'll be Tunica County's turn to grow fast, so all they have to do is wait for the growth to come to them. They better hope it doesn't bypass them and go to Tate instead.

Interstate 69, when it is fully built, will definitely bring some sprawl into Tunica County.  It is partially built into Tunica County, but not very far in.  And the next section isn't going to be built until at least 2019, according to Wikipedia.

But I think even the bulk of DeSoto's growth is currently in the I-55 corridor and areas closer to the Tennessee border, not closer to the river along U.S. 61, which would be the more logical route to bring sprawl into more of Tunica County.  So more of the sprawl just might go to Tate County, along I-55, instead of to Tunica County.  When I-269 opens in the near future, it should also open up more of DeSoto and maybe even Marshall County to sprawl, which might delay any growth in Tunica County.  I doubt DeSoto will be anywhere close to all filled within 10 years.

So the Interstate you mention isn't the one from Memphis to Birmingham, which has been stalled for years, but another one? Hopefully this DeSoto/Tunica Interstate can be built without all the NIMBY idiots having a fit like they did with the Northern Arc in Georgia, it's a shame that wasn't built.

I thought Tunica's problem is that it's in the flood plain of the Mississippi River, but being too far from the city is a bigger problem.

[7,052,770]

Jefferson Davis's house is across the street (actually I think Katrina God's will may have destroyed that). 

It was damaged by Katrina, but it was repaired/rebuilt and is open again.