Bingo a hot topic in community
March 07, 2008
Moving on ....
If you sit down and think about it—- if you close your eyes and try to imagine restaurants, hotels, a bingo center and a huge arena, popping up in the middle of a peanut field, well, it’s mind-boggling. It does call to mind what thoughts went through people’s heads when Disneyworld or Branson, Missouri were first proposed. I’m sure there had to be much skepticism. But you kinda have to ask yourself, well, why not? Destinations have been CREATED just like that. And in some unlikely places. Like Mississippi.
I am thinking, of course, of Tunica. As a native Mississippian, few folks I know ever conceived of riverboat gambling really changing anything, especially in the impoverished Delta. I’m sure a lot of us locals wondered if anybody would come. Would this crazy idea go over? Legally, would the state allow it to happen?
If I am recalling correctly, it seems the original legislation over there required that any casino be on a body of water (Mississippi River or Gulf Coast) because there was language that it had to be floated. Anyway, it was up to each individual county (located on bodies of water) to vote riverboat gambling in or not. The two counties to the north of my home county of Bolivar—Coahoma and Tunica—did call for a vote and it was approved by the voters. The neighboring county to the south, Washington, also voted yes. It should be noted all these counties of which I speak are heavy minority and have high poverty rates and unemployment. Bolivar Countians never took a vote.
The advantage Tunica had over somewhere like Greenville (Washington County) or Lula (Coahoma County), has always been its close proximity to a huge market—greater Memphis.
When the very first casino opened in the Delta, it was called Splash, and was about an hour south of Memphis. I went with a group from Shelby, Miss., and there was a 3-hour wait to get in. We were all ushered into a “holding room” that was also packed. One of the members of our party, a doctor, slipped someone a $50 bill and we were taken right on in.
“Make way for Dr. Ming and his party,“ I remember the big security guy saying. Boy, did we feel important. Hey, I was younger then.
Anyway, when we walked in, saw the crowds, heard the slots, watched the coins fall and the $100 bills disappear at blackjack tables, we were truly aghast. People coming to Tunica, Mississippi? You’ve got to be kidding me.
The only thing Tunica was known for was some of the best cotton yields in the state, and having a visit from Jessie Jackson a few years prior to casinos, when 20/20 came to town to do a segment on poverty. On one side, there is extreme poverty. On the other side, there was prosperity.
Anyway, this was not meant to be a conversation on gambling, but rather a demonstration of how something was created from nothing. Good or bad—something besides cotton grew from that rich, Delta soil. And, it’s big. Really big.
