Just returned from a Tunica trip and now I know why Tunica chips can be hard to come by.

The layout of the place makes it really tough to get to all of the casinos even with the shuttle service.

You can't buy chips from the cage and the chips on the tables are in just terrible condition. At one casino a roullete dealer was nice enough to go through all of the $1 chips on the table and we still had a tough time getting just a few with good edges.

The BlackJack tables I checked were using $1 tokens and 50cent peices instead of snappers. However, I did not check them all due to the condition of the chips.

I stayed at Sam's Town and would prefer to not stay there again and I would not recommend it although they are pretty loose on comps. It is near Hollywood and Harrah's but you can't really walk to those from Sam's.

The nicest casino (IMO) Is the Gold Strike and it has the Horshoe and the Sheraton within easy walking distance. The surprise of the trip was Fitzgeralds which is set off by itself but it is a really nice hotel/casino and had $3 crap tables while I was there.

Bally's looks like a dump and The Grand was unimpressive.

Overall, I thought the dealers were not as polished as those found in LV or AC and there were always lines at the cashier windows. Service in the casinos was generally slow but the food was exceptional.

I managed to snag a few collector peices from the crap tables and had a really good time even managing to hit 4 Aces on a Double Bonus Poker for $500.

Given the layout of Tunica and the price to fly into Memphis vs LV, I doubt I will be back for some time but you never know .