TUNICA, Ms. -- It sounds almost too incredible to believe, but work is afoot for the construction of the world's first fully-enclosed, climate-controlled golf course -- along with half a dozen gambling casisnos -- in this little version of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Tunica, with its existing six major casinos, now ranks third in the U. S. among major gambling locales.

If the Myriad Corporation can actually complete its amazing 540-acre, $1.9 billion plan Tunica will become a serious rival to Atlantic City and easily be the largest gambling resort town not located on a seacoast (Tunica is located on the Mississippi River, however).

Myriad Entertainment and Resorts, Inc., a Delaware Corp., owns, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, MER Resorts, Inc., a 33 per cent interest in Myriad World Resorts of Tunica, LLC, a Mississippi limited liability company.

Several Indian tribes are bidding to become a part of the proposed giant complex.

Casino parcels have been tentatively sold to High Plains Equity, LLC; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation for $40 million each. Each of these Indian tribes is located in North Dakota. Each casino is expected to be built at a cost of about $200 million.

Myriad Tunica will get a 4 per cent royalty of the gross gaming revenues from each.

The Myriad Resort project will include six casinos, six hotels, a convention center with its own dedicated hotel, full-length (about 7,100 yards) golf course, water park, a gigantic ferris wheel called "The Mississippi Eye", a luxury spa, botanical gardens, 2,500 seat performance space, retail mega mall, private label restaurants, family entertainment, caves of music, and more.

The first phase of the Tunica Myriad Resort will be 2 casinos, 1 hotel, the first chunk of the convention center/hotel, the water park, spa and other entertainment/retail. Plans call for the other casinos/hotels to be built out afterwards.

The Myriad Casino itself will be about 120,000 square feet.

The initial plan also called for a climate-controlled year-around indoor snow ski area, but that idea apparently has been scrapped as it is no longer listed in project planning.

Tunica's existing casinos are about 10-15 years old, with The Gold Strike Casino and Hotel the most popular. Many of the Tunica casinos are located miles from each other, so the Myriad plan would result in much more of a clustering effect.

Plans for Myriad mega Tunica units call for them to be built near the Hollywood Casino.

Some economic experts say it is questionable as to whether or not the Tunica area (and its nearby -- 40 miles away -- Memphis market) can successfully accommodate another half dozen or so casinos.

Denise von Herrmann, a University of Southern Mississippi professor who has published reports for the state of Mississippi on the gaming industry, says she thinks the expansion would be too much for the market.

"Five casinos is too much for short-term development in Tunica," she has said to the media. "One mega-casino could easily be absorbed into the market over time, but the big question is whether or not the existing casinos are afraid it'll be overbuilt or will bring more people. They are constantly researching the market and if they're not saying anything, they might know something we don't."

She says the key to the development would be the building of a year-around climate-controlled indoor golf facility. If that is done, she says, the complex would attract people from all over the world.

For more information on this project, call 780-431-0086 or visit the web site www.myriadworldresorts.com

This story was published on 04 Oct 2008.