After a casino boom, a Mississippi county deals with a reversal of fortune
TUNICA COUNTY, Miss. - Growing up in Tunica at the height of its casino boom, Roosevelt Hall felt his community had been dealt a winning hand.
Lavish monuments to gaming - a gleaming high-rise tower, an Irish medieval castle, an art deco movie house - rose up amid the cotton and rice fields, flooding the impoverished Mississippi Delta county with tourists, money and jobs.
But the 38-year-old bartender is increasingly hedging his bets on the future.
Nearly five years ago, Hall lost his job when the county's largest gambling complex, Harrah's, closed due to a glut in the market. After securing another position at the Tunica Roadhouse, he has watched his tips dwindle from about $150 to $25 a night. At the end of the month, the casino will shut down and Hall is unsure whether he will find a secure job at one of
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