Southland Gaming And Racing Expands And Adds New Jobs

(West Memphis, AR) Few of us will ever forget the record floods of 2011, and how many homes and businesses were lost when the Mississippi River hit a record high.

Casinos took the biggest hit, most of them shutting down for the first time ever.

Tunica’s loss was West Memphis’ gain.

Now, more than a year later, it’s pretty clear Southland Gaming and Racing hit the jackpot.

It didn’t take long for players to warm up to Southland’s new expanded gaming floor or the Shine Blounge.

Southland’s President and GM reveals how the name came about, “People kept calling it a bar. And I said, ‘We’re building more than an 11-million dollar bar, we’re building a lounge.’ And one of our marketing managers came up with the term Blounge, and it stuck.”

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe attended Friday’s ribbon cutting which was also about the economy and new jobs.

The 11-million dollar expansion means almost 70 new employees at Southland.

Governor Beebe says everyone comes out winner, “When you’re creating incomes for families and the ability for families to be able to make a living, it resonates in my office and I suspect resonates throughout the state.”

This is the second multi-million dollar expansion since 2006.

That’s when Southland added gaming to its greyhound racing venue.

Troy Keeping says there’s no denying the reason for the expansion , the floods of 2011, “When the flood hit we were the only game in town. And a lot of customers came over and rediscovered us.”

The expansion means there are now 1200 gaming machines.

There are also plans on the drawing board for a hotel, convention center and more gaming space, but no date has been announced.