I will be in Tunica for a few nights so I figured I would give a trip report on as many of the Tunica casinos as I can. I was only at two places today but hope to hit the rest tomorrow.

On the way in I stopped at the old Bally's (now 1st jackpot). The place was almost empty on a Monday early afternoon. I think I saw about 5 people gambling. They have also removed about 80% of all of the slot machines. Where they used to have two rows of 40 machines each they now have one or two 4 slot carrousels with 20 feet between carrousels. They have the same reduced pit with only two BJ tables open but no one was playing there. All chips are the same. I also noticed that the only food place open was the "deli". They had deserts in a display case but there were only about 5 total in there. They have added three food vending machines in the lobby. (REALLY???)

I made my way to home base (Fitz) and counted the cars in the hotel parking lot - 25 total. They also have a covered casino lot where most of the players must have parked. At least there were people playing some of the machines. And there were even people at the four table games that were open. I managed two sessions of BJ at a table where at least I was not the only person there. The food situation was not as bad. Although the buffet will not open until Wednesday the donut, ice cream, burger and pizza places were all open. They even seem to have almost reasonable prices. All of the chips are still the same. Fitz has some stupid ideas also. Since there were only 25 cars in the lot that means that the hotel was 80% vacant last night. They had a room ready for me but unless I waited until 2PM they wanted to charge me $15 extra (on a comped room) for the early check in. Then I found out that they still charge a $5 resort fee for a comped room. OK - the room was free. Then they tell me that the resort fee for my second night (paid room) would be $10. They get you a nickel and dime at a time.

I will try to finish this tomorrow night after I visit the other casinos.
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