Tunica's Rise In Economy

Tunica’s Rise in Economy:

The Effects of Casinos After Hurricane Katrina Hit the Gulf Coast

Rachel Johnson

English 1123

Jason Jones

27 January 2015

New Orleans, LA, Mobile, AL, Gulfport, MS, and Biloxi, MS are all flourishing cities built upon their population, economy, and attractions. The high population of each city is based upon their attractions. The most toured attraction of each city are their casinos. BLANK casinos were in New Orleans. BLANK casinos occupied Mobile. BLANK casinos were in Gulfport, and more than BLANK casinos bordered the shores of Biloxi. Between the years of 2000 and 2004, every one of these casinos contributed to billions of dollars in state tax revenue. Casinos practically kept the economy running

in these four cities as well increase population growth; however, the disastrous year of 2005 changed the Gulf Coast entirely. Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 storm, struck cities surrounding the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The loss of public facilities, houses, and lives brought much tribulation. Many people witnessed the tragedy Hurricane Katrina brought to the Gulf Coast, but few people actually noticed the prosperity it brought to other areas. In Northern Mississippi, Tunica was affected by Hurricane Katrina. The loss of numerous casinos in the Gulf Coast greatly helped boost Tunica, MS’s economy.
In the early 1900’s Tunica ranked fourth as the poorest county in the nation.1 Tunica, Mississippi was known as a ghost county prior to the arrival of casinos, because there was nothing more in this rural area to gaze upon but its agricultural fields. Not only the people but the governor of Tunica realized sacrifices had to be made in order to revive their county. Despite the delay, in October of 1992 the Mississippi Gaming Commission signed for the first casinos to be established in Tunica.2 This new era sparked Tunica’s economic growth; however, experienced competition with casinos reigned on the Gulf Coast.

With over eight casinos in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi the Gulf Coast allured 97929859040931 tourists in the years of 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. The gaming revenue for the Gulf Coast contributed $8,727,187,961 to Mississippi, excluding the tax revenue of each city. The Beau Rivage Casino, Hard Rock Casino, Harrah’s Gulf Coast Casino, and Hollywood Casino are the top casinos visited on the Gulf Coast. These beloved casinos draw tourists with their spas, 24-hour buffets, and family pools. Just because business on the coast soared greatly does not mean business in Tunica never existed.
What is known as Tunica Resorts now was Robinsonville when casinos first came to this region. There were only a handful of six casinos constantly running 24 hours. Certainly, tourists appeared. One-point-two million tourists visited each month, but that could not balance how much money the economy spent. The reason being is Tunica started off as an impoverished county and had to spend millions of dollars on the building of casinos and the employment of new workers. (TRANSITION SENTENCE)
Both Tunica and the Gulf Coast had business flowing.

The Gulf Coast made their usual earnings as well as Tunica; however, during the summer of 2005 a severe storm occured. On August 29th of that year Hurricane Katrina hit the entire Gulf Coast from Alabama to Louisiana. There were more than 1,000 casualties. Biloxi alone had an estimation of a hundred deaths, yet some bodies were not found. Gulfport, MS claimed nearly 50 deaths. The destruction of each city together approximately amounted to 1.5 million dollars. Mississippi state officials claimed each day the casinos were down $500,000 was lost. So much tragedy happened in such a short amount of time, so it was difficult to clean, repair, and replace the

damage.

Figure 1 shows the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport. The Grand Casino stands tall near the shoreline, but Hurricane Katrina left nothing but a demolished foundation.

According to both the Economics and Statistics Administration and U.S.

Department of Commerce reconstruction payments costed $30 billion. There was a lost of 19,000 workers in Biloxi and Gulfport combined. The population plummeted, losing around 41,000 household members. Things tremendously started changing for the lives of people living on the coast. Things also started happening in Northern Mississippi.

Once the majority of the casinos on the coast was ruined the pace of Tunica’s gaming industry begun to kick off. Tunica went from gaining $88.6 million in September of 2005 to gaining $108 million in January of 2006. Conventions that were held at casinos on the coast had to be relocated. The Tunica Convention and Visitors’ Bureau accepted many requests asking to host conventions in Tunica. Graph 1 depicts the increase of Tunica’s gaming revenue. More money brought into Tunica meant improvements could now be made be made to public

facilities.

Despite how some people thought the victims from Mississippi affected by Hurricane Katrina moved to the northern counties others thought these victims migrated to bordering states, including Tennessee, Alabama, or Arkansas. Also in an article written by Grier (2005), he tells that many Hurricane Katrina evacuees resulted in moving to Arizona. Not only did Arizona experience a migration influx but Texas did too. In an anonymous interview from Georgetown University, being relevant to the migration of people after Hurricane Katrina, the interviewer asked, “What impact did the evacuees have in the communities that received them?” The respondent replied, “...Arkansas took in 75,000 evacuees...Arkansas’ population of just over 2 million increased almost overnight by 2.8 percent.”
All these propositions are logical and they do have truth, yet these propositions can not pertain to Mississippi.
Yes, a vast amount of people moved out of the Gulf Coast area due to Hurricane Katrina; however, evacuees from Mississippi did not all migrate out of state. It made sense for families living in Louisiana to move to Texas and even Arizona. In addition, these Texas and Arizona had a big population size and they could meet the necessities of the pauperized families that moved in. But families living in Mississippi migrated north. According to the 2000 U.S Census Bureau several North Mississippi counties filed to be metropolitan areas, many in which were close to Tunica. In Figure 2 the counties with metropolitan areas are highlighted to show the how close in relationship they are to Tunica County. Counties including metropolitan areas are blue, and Tunica County is orange.
The newly increased populated counties influenced the growth of Tunica’s economy, thus enhancing Tunica’s tourism. More and more publicity came towards Tunica. Webster Franklin, president and CEO of Tunica Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, (2006) proclaimed that they put together a $2.1 million advertising campaign that went to markets in St. Louis, MO, Little Rock, AR, Nashville, TN, and Huntsville, AL. Gaming revenue increased for Tunica by 11%. “...There are more attractions now and the area is reaching more of a tourism destination in its own right”, said Lyn Arnold (2006).
Skeptics still felt Tunica’s casinos were not good enough: Casinos were hoarding money obtained from tourists. but much of it had not been given back to the community. This was proved to be false seeing that Tunica made improvements to local schools and museums. A blogger posted her opinion on Tunica’s financial approach:
In my opinion, Tunica Casino tourist and casino development has greatly helped the local economy and during the time I started going to Tunica/Robinsonville (20 years ago) when the first place was a tiny tiny place with one casino. Malls, restaurants, Dollar General, hotels, apartments and on and on have been built, where there was once not much there. (Anonymous 2014)

This person was right. County officials made Tunica gaming entertaining for tourists by improving casinos. But Casinos were not the only renovations made, parks and recreational centers were also rebuilt. John Osborne, the general manager of Hollywood Casino stated that “There has been a real vision if you look at the investment on infrastructure. Look at it all­—the school improvements, the recreation centers, the museums, everything.”