The City of Natchez pulled up a chair and started playing a dirty game of cards more than five years ago without knowing when to hold ’em or when to fold ’em.

As concerned citizens predicted, Roth Hill Casino developers continue to play trump cards at the foot of the hill.

Millions of dollars have already been poured into parking infrastructure on land the casino neither owns nor leases from the city. That work began before the city approved a third amendment to the lease agreement that moved the agreed- upon tract of land to the north.

As City Planner Bob Nix pointed out to the Natchez Preservation Commission, no court is likely to tell the developers to undo the work they’ve already done.

Developers are also, apparently, planning to cross private property without previous landowner permission to create an emergency fire access road to the casino.

These aren’t plans developers dreamed up yesterday. They are, instead, cards they’ve been waiting to play.

But this shouldn’t be a poker game; it should be fair and honest business. A good business partner would have publicly shared its plans with the city — and its taxpayers — from day one.

A business that reveals its aces one by one — something, some would say, we should have expected from a casino — conjures up a great Kenny Rogers lesson.

You’ve got to know when to walk away … and know when to run.

City leaders passed over their best opportunity to run when they signed the lease amendment. But maybe there’s still time to walk.