Southland Greyhound Park
Encyclopedia
Greyhound racing
Greyhound racing is the sport of racing greyhounds. The dogs chase a lure on a track until they arrive at the finish line. The one that arrives first is the winner....
park and casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
in West Memphis, Arkansas
West Memphis, Arkansas
West Memphis is the largest city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 27,666 at the 2000 census, with an estimated population of 28,181 in 2005, and 31,329 in 2011 ranking it as the state's 11th largest city, behind Hot Springs...
. Over 400 greyhound
Greyhound
The Greyhound is a breed of sighthound that has been primarily bred for coursing game and racing, and the breed has also recently seen a resurgence in its popularity as a pedigree show dog and family pet. It is a gentle and intelligent breed...
races take place at the Park each year. Simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
and greyhound races from other tracks around the United States are also offered.
Begun in 1956, Southland was once the number one dog track in the United States. It was the only gambling site in the Mid-South
Mid-South
Mid-South may refer to:*The East South Central States*The region centered on the Memphis and Little Rock MSAs, including portions of West Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and northeastern Arkansas, as well as the Missouri Bootheel and extreme northwestern Alabama; see Memphis metropolitan...
and drew people from as far as Chicago.
The facility, which offered pari-mutuel wagering, started facing stiff competition in the 1990s when casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
gambling began in nearby Tunica, Mississippi
Tunica, Mississippi
Tunica is a town in Tunica County, Mississippi, United States, located near the Mississippi River. Until the early 1990s the town was one of the most impoverished places in the United States, semi-famous for the particularly deprived neighbourhood known as "Sugar Ditch Alley", named for the open...
. Its average daily betting handle dropped by 20 percent within the seven month period from October 1992 to March 1993. In 1989, gamblers wagered $212 million on the live greyhound races at Southland. By 2005, that figure had dropped to $33.5 million.
As a result, the park's owner invested an estimated $40 million and since 2006 the facility has been revamped to include electronic games of skill, electronic Blackjack
Blackjack
Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
and video poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
machines, following approval of the Arkansas General Assembly
Arkansas General Assembly
The Arkansas General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house Arkansas Senate with 35 members, and the lower Arkansas House of Representatives with 100 members. All 135 representatives and state senators...
. Southland has added more than 300 new employees, making it the third largest employer in West Memphis with 660 employees.
Electronic gaming hours allowed at the facility were expanded in May 2008 by unanimous approval of the Arkansas Racing Commission to boost revenue and confront continued competition from the Mississippi casinos.