Its fortunes have improved since development of a gambling resort area nearby during the early 1990s. Tunica gained national attention for its deprived neighborhood known as 'Sugar Ditch Alley', named for the open sewer located there. Tunica is the fourth community to serve as county seat of Tunica County, succeeding earlier county seats at Commerce (1839–1842, 1842–1847), Peyton (1842, temporary) and Austin (1847–1888). The community derives its name from the Tunica Indians which once were numerous in the area.
Despite this economic improvement, Tunica's population continues to decline from its peak in 1970.
Until the early 1990s when casino gambling was introduced in the area, Tunica had been one of the most impoverished places in the United States. Tunica is a town in and the county seat of Tunica County, Mississippi, United States, near the Mississippi River.
