TUNICA · MISSISSIPPI · THIRTY MILES SOUTH OF MEMPHIS
Tunica was America's third-largest casino market. It isn't anymore — and that's worth knowing before you drive.
In the late 1990s only Las Vegas and Atlantic City were bigger than this stretch of Delta farmland. Ten casinos ran here. Five do now. Harrah's Tunica closed in 2014, Tunica Roadhouse in 2020, and Sam's Town shut its doors on November 9, 2025. Most pages about Tunica still list all of them, which is how people end up in an empty parking lot. This one doesn't. Five properties are open, one of them a Caesars Horseshoe with a real poker room, and a smaller market means shorter waits, softer rates and comps that work harder than they would in Vegas. Here's exactly what's running.
Part of the Vantage Corridor Casino Network — thenetwork.casino
Verified August 2026 — check before you drive, this market moves
· Caesars Entertainment
The anchor of the market and the reason serious players still come. Caesars Rewards, a hotel, the Bluesville live music venue, and the strongest poker room in the Delta. If you're making one stop in Tunica, this is it.
· Cherokee Nation Entertainment
The thirty-two-story gold tower is the landmark of Tunica and was the tallest building in Mississippi when it opened in 1994. MGM Resorts sold it to Cherokee Nation Entertainment on February 15, 2023 for $450 million, and it now sits alongside Hard Rock Tulsa in the Cherokee Nation Businesses portfolio.
· Penn Entertainment
Casino Strip Resort Boulevard. Hotel, dining, and a floor that's held up better than most in the market. One of five Penn properties in Mississippi.
· Penn Entertainment
Formerly Bally's Tunica. About 46,500 square feet with roughly 899 slots and 16 table games — the most straightforward gaming floor in Tunica and generally the least crowded.
· Foundation Gaming & Entertainment
Operated by Foundation Gaming under a lease with VICI Properties, which bought the real estate in 2022. Formerly Fitzgeralds. Casino, hotel, and the most local feel of the five.
Call ahead, genuinely. This market has lost half its properties in a decade and the most recent closure was November 2025. Hours, amenities and even whole hotels change here faster than the internet keeps up with. A two-minute phone call before a two-hour drive is a fair trade.
The Caesars Rewards property in the Delta, and the market's poker room.
Horseshoe is the one property in Tunica that still operates at destination scale — hotel, live music at Bluesville, and the poker room that draws players from Memphis and across the Delta. Because it's a Caesars Rewards property, a stay here earns tier credits that carry to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Orleans and the rest of the network. In a market this soft, the room rates are frequently the best value Caesars runs anywhere.
See Current Horseshoe Tunica Rates →Tunica.Casino earns a commission if you book through this link, at no additional cost to you. We are not affiliated with Caesars Entertainment.
Because half the pages about Tunica still list these
— closed November 9, 2025
Boyd Gaming shut it citing market conditions. The most recent closure in Tunica and the one most likely to still be listed as open elsewhere.
— closed January 2, 2020
A Caesars property. Caesars now directs Roadhouse guests to Horseshoe Tunica. The Roadhouse page still exists on caesars.com, which confuses people regularly.
— closed 2014
Once the largest casino in the market. Its closure is generally treated as the moment Tunica's contraction became undeniable.
Resorts closed; the Bally's property was rebranded and continues today as 1st Jackpot Casino Tunica under Penn.
What a shrinking market actually means for you. Fewer rooms competing for the same Memphis weekend traffic means the survivors compete harder. Expect shorter waits at tables, comp offers that clear at lower play levels than they would in a hot market, and midweek rates that are difficult to beat anywhere Caesars operates. The trade-off is fewer options and less certainty — which is why the list above matters.
Thirty miles south on US-61 — and Tennessee has no commercial casinos
Tennessee never legalized commercial casino gaming. Memphis is a metro of well over a million people with nowhere legal to play a table game, and in 1990 Mississippi legalized dockside gaming in its river counties. Tunica County — at the time one of the poorest counties in the United States — was thirty miles down US-61 from that entire market. What followed was the fastest casino boom in American history outside Nevada.
That geography still explains everything about Tunica. It is not a destination that grew from a city; it is a destination built in a farm field to serve one, and the drive down from Memphis on US-61 is part of the experience — Highway 61 is the Blues Highway, and this is the stretch that earned the name.
About thirty miles and forty minutes from downtown Memphis, straight down US-61. Memphis International Airport is the practical airport for a Tunica trip.
The Blues Highway runs from New Orleans to Minnesota and this section of it is the heart of the Mississippi Delta — the landscape that produced Robert Johnson, Son House and Muddy Waters. The Gateway to the Blues Museum sits on US-61 in Tunica in a restored 1895 train depot.
Tunica RiverPark on the Mississippi, with a museum and river overlook. The Delta itself, which is flat, enormous and unlike anywhere else in America. If you're driving from Memphis, allow time for more than the floor.
Every licensed casino in Mississippi, all three regions
→ bestinmississippi.casinoThe Gulf Coast market, Mississippi's largest
→ bestinbiloxi.casinoAcross the river, and growing fast
→ bestinarkansas.casinoDown Highway 61 toward Baton Rouge and New Orleans
→ bestinlouisiana.casinoWhere the Blues Highway ends
→ bestinneworleans.casinoCasino routes across America
→ casinoroadtrip.casinoFree, confidential help is available around the clock. The Mississippi Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling runs the state helpline, and voluntary self-exclusion is available at every licensed Mississippi casino.
Mississippi Gambling Helpline
1-888-777-9696
24 hours a day, 7 days a week — free and confidential
msgambler.org
You must be 21 or older to gamble in Mississippi. Tunica.Casino is an independent guide and is not affiliated with Caesars Entertainment, the Mississippi Gaming Commission, or any casino property. This market changes quickly — operating status, hours and amenities are subject to change. Verify with the property before you travel.