Gold Strike Slot Machines Open

In 1990 the Mississippi legislature legalized slot machines and gambling to create jobs and bring in more industry. Tunica Counties was one of those areas that desperately needed help – they had unemployment in the double digits and growing daily, more than half of the county on food stamps, and things getting worse all the time - slot machines would be their savior.

Now it is one of the hottest areas to gamble between Atlantic City and Las Vegas. It is about a half hour from Memphis, and where there used to be nothing but country stores and cotton fields there are now slot machine casinos a plenty. There are nine resorts and slot machine casinos and more than 16,000 jobs where there used to be none. There are new schools, a new airport, new roads, new everything. They even have county employees that their only job is to make sure that there is no trash along the side of the road so that it looks clean all the time.

There are over 10 million visitors a year, and yet with all of that it still keeps its small town charm. The Gold Strike Casino is not the only venue in town either, there is also the Hollywood Casino that says their slot machines have a 98% payout; the Horseshoe Casino Tunica, which has over 2,000 slot machines as well as high limit slot machines; the Resorts Casino Hotel, small but intimate slot machine casino; The Sheraton, which boasts that they have the “loosest” slot machines in town; and of course Sam’s Town, which has nightly Keno to play. No matter where you end up playing your slot machines, know that you have plenty to choose from in a small town setting that just reeks of hospitality.

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