One of them is residents. And as long as there are gamblers, the money will keep on coming because Mississippi law lets the handful of counties with riverboat casinos take a 4 percent tax levy while the rest of the state shares another 8 percent.
Jobs are plentiful.
Three new banks, a half dozen new government buildings, landscaped sidewalks, and a park have dressed up downtown. To ice the cake, in September Tunica did away with city property taxes altogether. For all the apparent prosperity, however, people are not eager to live here. The casinos have created 14,000 jobs in Tunica County, but most of the employees commute to Memphis or DeSoto County, Mississippi. Tunica County s estimated population of 10,000 is only about 10 percent more than it was in 1990, before casinos.