Sam’s Town Casino in Tunica is closing after over 30 years.
What was once one of the country’s largest casino markets is now down to five operating in the area with the closure of its largest casino. The Tunica market has been declining for years, largely from competition in neighboring states and other gambling options becoming available. Harrah’s Tunica, which was previously the largest casino in the market, closed in 2014.
A majority of Mississippi casinos are now located along the Coast and developers are looking to build more there. Gambling became legal along the Mississippi River and the Coast in 1990. It has since grown to an over $2-billion industry according to the American Gaming Association. Mississippi’s 28 casino properties employ around 37,000 people and provide tax revenue to the state and cities they are in.
Nationally, in-person gambling still brings in more revenue. However, the online gambling sector is rapidly growing. In Mississippi, only in-person or on-site sports betting in a casino is legal despite attempts at legalization of mobile sports betting and studies showing students are finding workarounds to place bets online.
Entergy CEO answers data center questions
We’ve heard from Mississippians recently about their concerns over three large data centers being built in Mississippi.
A major concern is potential electricity rate hikes from the power-hungry centers. Other areas across the country have seen rate increases attributed to data centers.
Last week Mississippi Today sat down for a Q&A with Haley Fisackerly, CEO of Entergy, about the impact of the data centers. He said Mississippi learned lessons from other states before it landed its first data centers, and that they will not cause electric bills to spike in Mississippi. He said rates were already likely to increase in coming years as power companies upgrade antiquated infrastructure, and having large new companies helping foot the bill will lower costs to consumers for new plants.
“First of all, rates were already going up,” Fisackerly said. “The investments were going up. Inflation is driving all of our materials up. Natural gas costs have been higher. Now those are dollar-for-dollar patch throughs that we don’t make profits off of. But that trajectory we were showing is being lowered. So there’s still going to be rates going up. Everybody’s rates are going up.
“… Rates are not going to be as high as they otherwise would’ve been.”
Read the full Q&A here.
You can reach me at marketplace@mississippitoday.org to share your thoughts.
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-- Article credit to Katherine Lin for Mississippi Today --
