American Gaming Enterprises, which was exploring a golf-and-gaming complex in Vicksburg, has dropped plans for the development, a chief company executive said Tuesday.

“We just looked at conditions and the market and decided not to do it.” CEO Paul “Sonny” Marshall said, adding the fledgling casino company learned of the December death of Paul Bunge, who had owned the land and was promoting the development, after its decision. All deposits related to the company’s initial contact with Bunge have been returned, Marshall said. “We’re basically out of it.”

Bunge’s wife, Sue, said her husband died of heart failure. He was 56.

The Las Vegas-based company had entered talks with Bunge, who lived in Castle Rock, Colo., last summer to buy out the gaming portion of the $190 million development on the former Vicksburg Chemical land south of the river bridges. If built as Mississippi Bluffs, it would have been the city’s sixth casino.

As recently as September, American Gaming principals had been optimistic about the continued growth of the market, citing expansion upriver at Ameristar and construction of the Riverwalk Casino virtually next door as reasons to get into the local market. More recently, Marshall indicated, they were cited as reasons to believe the market will be too splintered.

American Gaming still plans to move ahead with its other plans in Cripple Creek, Colo., and just downriver from Vicksburg in Natchez, where developers have pitched a Las Vegas-style riverfront casino at the bottom of Roth Hill Road to include two restaurants and other additions such as a walkway and a park.

“Yes, we’re in a proposed joint venture with the Lane Company,” Marshall said. Lane officials struck a deal in 2006 with city officials to pay about $1 million annually to the City of Natchez for use of the riverfront property.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman, a golf enthusiast who has played professionally, was an early champion of the Bluffs development from its inception in late 2005. The prospect of adding a third local golf course would have been good for locals and tourists alike, Beauman said.

“I was just floored,” Beauman said, adding he received word of Bunge’s death from City Attorney Nancy Thomas.

Bunge was originally deeded the 480 acres of hills and hollows east and west of Warrenton Road in 2006 by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality on the condition developers would pay for an $8 million cleanup of about 20 acres separate from the casino development said to be contaminated due to chemical plant operations on that portion for about 60 years. The plant site is still viable for industry, but Bunge’s plan included promoting other portions of the tract for homes and shopping areas in addition to the gold course and riverside casino.

Where those plans stand remains uncertain. Beauman and Thomas have been told legalities involved in the death of Bunge, listed as the chief principal in the land-holding Mississippi Bluffs Development LLC, are being handled by attorneys with Jackson law firm Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes.

“Basically, they’ve told us it was up in the air and they had no point of contact,” Beauman said.

Marshal said downturns in the credit market and the national economy coupled with a leveling-off of post-Katrina business for Mississippi River casinos contributed to the company’s decision to abandon its Vicksburg plans about 30 days before Bunge’s death.

Taxes collected from Vicksburg’s four casinos surged by about $1.5 million during the year after the August 2005 hurricane, but have dropped back since.

Revenue to the City of Vicksburg totaled $1,595,493 in the last three months of 2007, the beginning of the budget year. For December, the city collected $555,328. Compared to this time last year, the revenue is down about 2 percent.

Warren County took in $700,775 in taxes from the casinos during the quarter and $261,457 for December. For the quarter, collections are more than $28,000 behind last year.

A fifth casino continues under construction. The $100 million Riverwalk complex next to Rainbow is on track to open in November.

Mississippi Bluffs’ site plans had called for a 50,000-square-foot gaming facility to sit atop pilings on the Mississippi River and feature 1,500 slot machines and 36 table games with a 232-room hotel overlooking the casino and a 510-space parking garage. Its adjacent 18-hole golf course was to be planned by the design firm of three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin.

Another 105 acres of land on which Vicksburg Chemical sat is leased to Harcros Chemical, site of a distribution center operated by the multistate company. In December, the company demolished an old reactor tower used by the defunct local company.

Expansion of local casinos include ongoing work at Ameristar, where a $98 million makeover to its gaming site, parking arrangement and other amenities is expected to be finished during the second quarter of this year. DiamondJacks, formerly Isle of Capri, has promised more renovation to its facility further up Washington Street.

American Gaming’s decision to opt out leaves one development pending. The $200 million casino resort proposed by Minnesota-based Lakes Entertainment has been in preconstruction phases since 2005, with its fate tied to the future of railroad right-of-way adjacent to its site between U.S. 61 South and the Mississippi River.