In between families eating breakfast, there are some roped off sitting areas in front of moderate-sized TVs that were capable of holding maybe a dozen sports bettors, if that many.ĭespite the cramped space and limited staffing, the lines move quickly. The betting counter is maybe 10-feet long, with only two tellers taking bets this morning. The sportsbook at the Gold Strike is crammed into a small room next to the Pickle & Jam deli. They all want to get to the counter to get their bets in before the 11 a.m. Tunica is less than two hours away from the Rebels' Oxford campus, four hours from the Crimson Tide's home in Tuscaloosa and three hours from Starkville, where the Bulldogs reside. It is a male-dominated, diverse crowd, littered with Ole Miss, Alabama and Mississippi State gear. Both hotels were sold out through the holiday weekend, and some customers were told comps were not available due to high demand.Įarly Saturday morning at Gold Strike, bettors from Nashville to New Orleans stand in a line that stretches outside of the tiny new sportsbook and into the hotel lobby. The addition of sports betting added to the buzz on what was already a busy few days at the Gold Strike Casino Resort and across the parking lot at the neighboring Horseshoe. Labor Day weekend was the new Magnolia State bookmakers' first real test. Two months after the decision, sportsbooks opened in casinos along the Gulf Coast in Biloxi and in the northwest corner of the state in Tunica.
#Gold strike tunica sports betting professional
Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, the federal statute that had restricted legal sports betting to primarily Nevada for 26 years. This summer, Mississippi became the third state - and first in SEC country - to allow Las Vegas-style sports betting since May, when the U.S. "Welcome to Mississippi," Maclin says in disgust. But on this night, nothing can stop 1-900 from taking center stage. With all due respect to the "best wedding reception band in Memphis," Michigan-Notre Dame is a marquee game on this opening Saturday, and Tim Maclin, who made the nearly three-hour trip down from Searcy, Arkansas, has a two-team parlay riding on the underdog Fighting Irish.
Somewhat out of nowhere, as the second half is getting ready to kick off, the game disappears off the screen, replaced by a pink, almost psychedelic backdrop, and the 1-900 Band begins to set up. The 1-900 band gets ready to take the stage. It's late in the second quarter, and the Wolverines' Ambry Thomas is racing through the Irish kick coverage for a 99-yard touchdown return that gets Michigan back in the game and set ups an intriguing second half for the few dozen patrons hanging around the bar next to the sportsbook. Michigan-Notre Dame is on the featured TV, a wall-sized projection screen located behind the half-moon-shaped bar, above a music stage. The most jarring evidence that this is nothing like Las Vegas sports betting, though, comes 30 minutes later. One young woman in a referee shirt is manning the betting counter, which is the size of a small carnival stand. It's prime time on the first college football Saturday since sports betting became legal in SEC-crazy Mississippi, but no one is in line to bet. At this point, it feels a lot like Las Vegas. The 35 promotional footprints that are stuck on the worn, grey carpet lead you through the heart of the casino, weaving in and out of rows of blinking slot machines and past the cashier's cage, while dodging cocktail waitresses with trays holding way too many drinks. To get to the new sportsbook at 1st Jackpot casino, the security guard standing at the entrance smiles and says to simply follow the big, yellow footprints.
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