Casino Cash Fuels Miss. Tourist Attractions
T U N I C A, Miss., Dec. 26 -- A $26 million museum and ecological park has opened on the banks of the Mississippi River, the latest in a line of entertainment developments largely paid for with casino tax money that Tunica County officials hope will lure a wider range ofvisitors.
The Tunica RiverPark, which opened its doors Nov. 19, features a37,000-square-foot museum with artifacts that date to the days ofthe explorer Hernando DeSoto, aquariums swimming with river lifeand interactive exhibits where visitors can pilot their ownriverboats.
The museum sits on 130 acres of wilderness through whichdevelopers plan to build a network of trails. Nearby, tourists canfloat up the river on an old-fashioned paddleboat, passing bothcotton fields and casinos in what was once the poorest region inthe nation.
The park is the most recent in a line of projects built by acounty now flush with revenue from its nine casinos and the roughly12 million people — many from Memphis, Tenn., a short drive to thenorth — that the gambling halls bring in each year. The strategy isthis: now that they have the gamblers, county officials want todiversify and attract families to the area, too.
"The way we look at it, the casino folks are going to come hereanyway," said Tunica County spokesman Jeff Piselli. "You're goingto have people from all over the place coming to see this, andthey'll bring their kids. We don't really lose anything, what weget is an entire different demographic."
Country Roads Lead to Casinos
A decade ago, the landscape of this rural county of about 9,400was mainly an unbroken terrain of cotton and soybean fields. Today,golf courses, restaurants and retailers have sprung up on thecountry roads that connect the county's nine casinos.
Jon Lucas, president of Park Place Entertainment's Tunica group,which owns the Grand, Sheraton and Bally's casinos, compares Tunicatoday to another gambling destination 20 years ago.
"It's a very similar story to the early days of AtlanticCity," Lucas said. "Atlantic City had deteriorated and was aneconomically depressed area. It was a way of helping revive thatarea."
