With no “eye in the sky” equipment working, Horizon Casino has closed its gaming floor until Wednesday at the earliest.

General Manager Bob Little said a power surge at 3 p.m. Sunday “fried” a portion of the surveillance system, closing Vicksburg’s only downtown casino.

“Unfortunately, the parts we need to replace have to come from Pennsylvania — and one of the pieces weighs a couple thousand pounds — so we’re having to wait for them to be driven down and installed,” Little said Monday. “We’re told they can be here Tuesday  afternoon or early Wednesday morning and be installed for us to be up and running sometime Wednesday.”

The casino’s restaurants and buffet are still open, as is the adjoining 117-room hotel. Little said the power surge did not affect any of the slot machines on the gaming floor, but Mississippi Gaming Commission regulations prohibit a casino from operating without fully functioning surveillance. About 175 customers were on the gaming floor when the surge happened, said Little, and they were asked to leave.

“We’re going to be under the weather for a few days, but we will be devising some very liberal promotions to make up for it when we reopen,” said Little.

John Gorman, Mississippi Gaming Commission branch director in Vicksburg, said the closing of Horizon’s gaming floor is the first time a power surge or failure has resulted in a closure of a gaming floor in the city. It is the first closing of a gaming floor since all of the city’s casinos were closed for days due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Spring flooding threatened all of the city’s casinos, but forced no closures, while the lone casino in Natchez was closed due to high water. 

Horizon, which is owned and managed by Tropicana Entertainment, opened as a Harrah’s Casino in November 1994 and is one of five casinos in Vicksburg. Harrah’s sold the property in 2003, which is located at 1310 Mulberry St., at which point it became Horizon Casino.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com.