{"id":336,"date":"2025-09-05T15:33:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T15:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=336"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:08:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:08:56","slug":"sams-town-tunica-casino-to-close-november-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/05\/sams-town-tunica-casino-to-close-november-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam\u2019s Town Tunica Casino to Close November 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Boyd Gaming cites two decades of falling market demand<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sam\u2019s Town once anchored Tunica\u2019s booming casino industry<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Arkansas competition reshaped regional gambling and visitor traffic<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tennessee-death-row-inmate-dies-25-years-after-notorious-casino-murder\/\">Sam\u2019s Town Tunica<\/a> is to close on November 10, its owner Boyd Gaming announced Thursday, citing two decades of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mississippis-tunica-turns-to-wind-energy-to-propel-economy\/\">declining demand.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_361948\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-361948\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-361948 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Sam\u2019s Town Tunica closure, Boyd Gaming Tunica, Mississippi casino decline, Arkansas casino competition, Tunica job losses\" width=\"858\" height=\"523\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Sams-Town-858x523-1.jpg\"><figcaption>Sam\u2019s Town Tunica has been one of the region\u2019s largest casinos since opening in 1994. It employs hundreds of workers, and its closure delivers another economic blow to northwest Mississippi. (Image: Boyd Gaming)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A spokesperson for Boyd confirmed that employees were informed of the planned closure on Thursday. The announcement has fueled concerns over job losses in a community still reeling from previous closures. Sam\u2019s Town has been the area\u2019s largest casino since Harrah\u2019s Tunica shut down in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Although precise employment figures haven&#8217;t been disclosed, properties of this size typically employ around 700 workers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>This was not an easy decision for our company. However, demand throughout the northwest Mississippi market has declined significantly over the past 20 years, with several of Tunica\u2019s original casinos closing since 2014,\u201d Boyd said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOur decision to close Sam\u2019s Town is a result of these market conditions and follows our best efforts to adjust the business to address lower demand. These decisions are by far the most difficult we have to make as a company, and we regret that this was necessary,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Right-Sizing <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Like Reno and Atlantic City before it, Tunica is in the process of \u201cright-sizing\u201d itself as it adjusts to a smaller market \u2013 a side effect of increased competition in neighboring states, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/latest-tunica-casino-closure-shows-arkansas-as-a-growing-power\/\">notably Arkansas.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Arkansas voters passed a constitutional amendment that permitted full-scale commercial casino operations in select counties.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>A year later, Southland Racetrack in West Memphis transitioned into a full casino with live table games, traditional slot machines, and sports betting \u2013 all newly permissible under state law. West Memphis lies just 45 miles north of Tunica.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sam\u2019s Town will be the fourth casino to have closed in Tunica since 2014. These include Harrah\u2019s, which was once the largest casino resort between Atlantic City and Las Vegas. It was followed by Resorts Casino Tunica and the Roadhouse, both in 2019, the year Southland became a full-fledged casino.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Sam\u2019s Town&#8217;s Boomtown Years<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Built to mimic a Western frontier town, Sam\u2019s Town was the first casino owned by Boyd outside of Nevada. Like other Tunica casinos, it qualified as a \u201criverboat\u201d operation because its gaming floor sits on barges floating in a man-made basin connected to the Mississippi River, in accordance with state law.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The casino opened in 1994 during Tunica&#8217;s gambling heyday, when the town exploded into the nation\u2019s third-largest casino market behind Las Vegas and Atlantic City. With essentially no competition in its immediate feeder markets, it became a powerhouse destination, often marketed as \u201cthe South\u2019s Casino Capital\u201d and drawing millions of visitors annually.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sam\u2019s Town\u2019s closure leaves Tunica\u2019s once-booming casino strip with just five properties fighting for a smaller pool of customers.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sams-town-tunica-casino-to-close-november-10\/\">Sam\u2019s Town Tunica Casino to Close November 10<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boyd Gaming cites two decades of falling market demand Sam\u2019s Town once anchored Tunica\u2019s booming casino industry Arkansas competition reshaped regional gambling and visitor traffic Sam\u2019s Town Tunica is to close on November 10, its owner Boyd Gaming announced Thursday, citing two decades of declining demand. Sam\u2019s Town Tunica has been one of the region\u2019s largest casinos since opening in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}