It looks to me like Tunica is headed in the same direction as AC. Harrahs closes for the third time and all of the poker rooms except two are now closed. I took a quick trip to all of the casinos except Sam's Town this week and here is what I found.

Hollywood (where I stay) closed their great old style diner about 4 years ago and replaced it with a very poor 24 hour deli. A few months ago they got rid of all of the specials at the deli and this trip when I went to get a donut for breakfast at 6:30 AM I found out that it was closed from midnight until 7AM. There is now no place to get real food during those hours since the buffet also opens at 7 AM. They have at most 1/3 of the slot machines that they had before the recession. It used to be that you had to walk sideways to get between the machines, Now the isles are 20 feet wide and the machines are in carrousels to give the appearance of more machines. They also cut about 30 feet off of the table games pit size since last month. The 24 hour $1 BJ table that they advertise on the billboard outside was closed most of the time I was there. The only smart move they made was getting rid of an enclosed high limit slot area and moving the poker room into that area. Now the poker room is not right next to the band stand so you don't get blasted out. It used to be so loud you couldn't hear the dealer on the weekends. They have new room keys. As part of the cutbacks they must have gotten rid of some cocktail waitresses since the poker room manager had to make not one but two phone calls just to get service. They have added a reorder of $1 and $2.50 chips to the racks but they are identical to those on the tables.

Ballys is that same old hole in the wall with 1997 chips and less than half of the slots similar to Hollywood. They moved the gift shop into the area that previously had the high limit slots. Bally's has a new slot card that is not tied to Resorts anymore. It sounds like Resorts is going to get rid of Ballys to me. Bally's has always been known as the training casino for new employees. They both got rid of the best deal in town - a buffet for $1 in comps. I would play $5 BJ for half and hour or so and get enough for a buffet or two. I didn't want to sit at the BJ table 9AM Thursday at Resorts since even though the pits are now open before noon there was no one playing anything and I don't like playing at a table alone. Resorts also has a new slot card.

Roadhouse is pretty much the same and I am pretty sure that the bosses don't realize that they have a 5/9 five cent Jacks or Better machine on the floor (up to 100 coins).

Horseshoe tripled the size of their poker room with the closing of Harrahs. They are also rebuilding their cashier cage but not else much is new.

Gold Strike replaced their poker room with a no smoking casino on the second floor and reworked their buffet. I didn't get to see much more since as I was walking to the pit area one of the bosses grabbed me and made me learn how to play craps. Since they had these chips which I didn't have (neither does the chipguide) I figured I better learn again.

Fitzgerald's also has a new slot card. Not much else new there.

It is sad to see the Tunica casinos go down hill so fast. They said they never recovered from the flood in 2011 and the dog track casino across the river from Memphis has eaten into their business a lot.