While Jackson County debates the serving of liquor by the drink at restaurants and the Dothan area cracks down on BINGO games not played on paper, the folks in Gadsden County, located just across the Apalachicola River, are building an actual 100-acre Vegas-style casino complex, complete with horse racing, poker and drinks.  The newspaper ads hit the streets last week:  “Interested in becoming a poker dealer at the new Creek Entertainment Poker Room?  Sign up now for the poker dealer school where you will learn to deal poker and start a new career.  Classes will be held weekdays, Sept. 12-Oct. 21.”  The classes are free and will be held day and night at the Hampton Inn in Quincy, but will not guarantee the graduate a job.
Those ads are for some of the estimated 400 jobs that will begin next spring, according to the pushed-back schedule, as part of the reported $10 million racetrack/gaming complex near Gretna at the S.R. 12 - Interstate 10 intersection.
According to architectural drawings of the future complex, “Lucky Junction,” owned by Creek (Native American) Entertainment, will look similar to the former Country Crossing (now center Stage Alabama) development with the gambling pavilion in the center flanked by restaurants and bars.  Instead of an amphitheatre, like at Center Stage, presumably a “state-of-the-art” horse track will be built.  Race track developer David Romanik said in January, “I’ve been working on this project for almost four years now and it’s a dream come true.”  Former Mayor and current Gretna city council member Helen Franks said, “I’m so happy about this venture with our partners that I could just jump and shout.”  The race track will feature both quarter horse racing and other equine events,” Romanik told WCTV-TV.
The city of Gretna, long suffering as a low-income area which is populated almost exclusively by minorities, has evidently entered into a partnership with a company called Wind Creek, which is owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.  Wind Creek owns three casinos in Alabama.  The location of the complex is at the interstate, but the strategy of the developers may be exhibited by the name of the website to which hopeful poker dealers are directed:  www.jobsforgretna.com    
So, the landscape and the economic status of the Gretna area may be about to change.  Gretna officials expect the new business activity to generate “$2.5 million in the first phase, then $6 to $7 million each year in the second phase.”  For more info, go to the jobs for Gretna site or reference Creek Entertainment-Gretna on the internet.