State gaming officials expect to vote on Horizon Casino’s acquisition by a South Carolina gaming industry vendor in the first quarter of 2011.

Financing is the next step for the deal to win approval from the Mississippi Gaming Commission, something that will require about three or four months of review, said Allen Godfrey, the commission’s deputy director.

Terms of the sale announced by Tropicana Entertainment would transfer the Mulberry Street casino to Delta Investments & Development LLC for $3.25 million plus certain liabilities. Delta, incorporated in Nevada, is managed by J. Michael Caldwell of Gateway Gaming, Piedmont, S.C. The company develops game themes, gaming systems and associated hardware for casinos nationwide.

Horizon remains open and officials there have said the property’s 105 jobs are safe during the transition. Horizon opened in November 1993 as Harrah’s, the second in Vicksburg but the first casino/hotel tandem in Mississippi following gaming’s legalization in 1990. In regulatory filings, Tropicana cited the economy and low visitation for a 10.5 percent drop in net revenue in the third quarter at its casinos in Mississippi and Louisiana.

In addition to the 36,000-square-foot casino, the property takes in 2.95 acres of the public area at City Front, which is leased back to the City of Vicksburg for $1 a year. Annual payments totaling $562,939.56 plus 1.5 percent of net revenues to purchase the space are stretched through 2033, with termination fees set at $450,000 if the casino closes. Details of the pending sale don’t mention the ancillary parcels in Vicksburg, but do indemnify Delta against damages inherited from Tropicana’s local holding company leading up to the sale’s closing.