Tunica Resorts, Mississippi

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Tunica Resorts, Mississippi is an unincorporated community located in northern Tunica County, Mississippi, north of the county seat of Tunica. The community was originally named Robinsonville, but the name was changed in 2005. The community is situated mostly between the Mississippi River and U.S. Highway 61.

Tunica Resorts is, as the name implies, home to several casino resorts. The use of the name "Tunica" by the resorts, despite the fact that since 1995 they were all located in Robinsonville and not Tunica proper, led to the name change to reduce confusion by tourists. Lacking the structure of an organized city or town, Tunica Resorts consists mainly of casinos and cotton fields, with few permanent residents living in the community. Despite this, Tunica Resorts is the third largest casino-gambling destination in the United States, as measured by gaming revenue, behind Las Vegas, Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Its casinos attract gamblers mainly from nearby Memphis, Tennessee, but also draws visitors from northern Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Missouri and Kentucky.

As of 2005, the town was home to nine casinos: Grand Casino Tunica, Horseshoe Casino Tunica, Gold Strike Resort and Casino Tunica, Sheraton Casino and Hotel Tunica, Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, Bally's Tunica, Fitzgeralds Casino, Hollywood Casino and Hotel, and Resorts Tunica (formerly Harrah's). At one time, eleven different casinos were operated in the community.

The community is remarkable in that there is little other infrastructure other than that which adjoins the casinos. Businesses other than the casinos include a small numnber of motels, convenience stores and fast food restaurants, along with an outlet-style shopping center and the community's oldest business, the Hollywood Cafe — a blues club immortalized in the popular song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn in 1991. Small apartment complexes mainly occupied by casino workers are among the few dwellings found in Tunica Resorts. Outside of such structures — many built since 1990 — table-flat cotton fields mark much of the area, as was the case before the casinos came. Indeed, the scene of high-rise hotels rising behind the cotton fields presents a peculiar visual contrast to the arriving tourist.

As of 2007, some Tunica Resorts residents are trying to incorporate their community into a separate town government [1], rather than exist under the jurisdiction of Tunica County or move toward annexation into the town of Tunica. If Tunica Resorts incorporates, the new town government would be a direct beneficiary of casino tax revenue, enabling construction of municipal government offices. Depending on population and revenue growth, fire and police stations, libraries and other public infrastructure could be other likely additions.

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