Mack Boyd gets excited about the cards as Bob Clark, left, and Pascal Beasley play a hand of poker at Horizon Casino Tuesday.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

marmstrong@vicksburgpost.com

[3/24/04]Poker not the type on video screens is back in Vicksburg for the first time in two years.

The first of what Horizon casino managers hope will be many hands was dealt Tuesday afternoon in an area set aside from the slot machines and other table games. Players said they were happy to see competitive play return.

“You can never have enough poker,” said Mack Boyd of Brandon.

Two of the four state-licensed casinos in Vicksburg, the Isle of Capri and Ameristar, had previously opened person-against-person play, but both shut down their games, Ameristar the second to do so, in 2002.

Since, Boyd said he has traveled to state casinos in Tunica and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indian facilities near Philadelphia to play, but likes Vicksburg because it is closer.

Nationally, interest in poker has surged since preliminaries and final rounds of world championships have been televised. In another show, celebrities compete in the card games.

Horizon Casino Manager Gene Ford said he believes there is enough interest locally and across the region to maintain the poker tables. Horizon owns and operates the downtown facilities built and operated from 1993 until 2003 by Harrah’s. It’s Vicksburg’s smallest casino in square footage and had not offered live poker previously.

“We’ve had a lot of requests over the past two months and we think it’s something else we can do to set us apart from everyone else,” Ford said.

Most casino games are “house” games, similar to slot machines in that the casinos keep what patrons lose. At the poker tables, players compete to win or lose money among themselves and the casino, which provides the dealers and enforces the rules, keeps a few dollars from each round.

Horizon is owned by Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex Corporation of Fort Mitchell, which also operates 57 hotels, resorts and casinos in 26 states including the Lighthouse Point Casino in Greenville.

Ford said the casino is offering 7-card Stud and Texas Hold’em, variations of poker, at four tables in a remolded area on the casino’s first floor that had previously been a cafe. Plans are to add another game, Omaha, he said.

Minimum bets are $3 with various limits.

No other local casino said it has plans to add poker, but Curt Follmer, general manager at Rainbow, said it is something he wishes he had room to offer.

“If I had the space, I’d have poker in a hot second, but I just don’t have the space,” Follmer said.

Kim Tullos, general manager at the Isle of Capri, said the Isle will not move forward with new tables right now.

“We’re waiting to see if it’s a fad that’s going to last or not,” Tullos said.

Dockside gaming came to Vicksburg in 1993 after two countywide votes. The first to open was the Isle of Capri which was followed by Harrah’s and Ameristar.

Rainbow Casino was the last to open and will celebrate its 10th anniversary this summer.

Proposals for a fifth local casino on land formerly owned by Vicksburg Chemical are in the discussion phase. A previous plan to open a casino on the Big Black River was shot down after the Mississippi Gaming Commission declared the site unsuitable.

Local governments share taxes collected from the $200 million per year patrons lose on wagers. A .8 percent revenue tax is apportioned based on population between city and county coffers. A 3.4 percent tax is divided with 65 percent to the City of Vicksburg, 25 percent to Warren County and 10 percent to the Vicksburg Warren School District.

The casinos also pay property taxes on their developments, including hotels, to the county, city and schools and per-gaming position fees of $150 per year to the city. The state’s tax is 8 percent of revenue from wagers.