Rainbow casino listed for sale|[10/24/06]

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The company that owns Rainbow Casino has offered it for sale through a global investment bank, its general manager said this morning.

The offer is part of a five-year effort by Rainbow’s parent, Bally Technologies of Las Vegas, to sell assets not related to its main business, manufacturing, distributing and operating gaming devices, said Rainbow General Manager Curt Follmer.

&#8220I knew this day would come, I just didn’t know when,” Follmer said.

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If a buyer is found, Rainbow will be the third of Vicksburg’s four original casinos to change ownership.

The casino-hotel complex, 1380 Warrenton Road, was listed last week for sale by the global financial-services institution Credit Suisse, whose Los Angeles office is handling the potential deal, Follmer said.

Bally does not plan to sell the casino at a price just &#8220to get rid of it,” Follmer said, adding that no buyer had been identified and he did not know when the casino would sell.

Rainbow celebrated its 10th anniversary in July 2004. When it opened, it was the first venture by the device-centered company to operate a casino. Rainbow initially partnered with Six Flags and had a mini-amusement park on its site with indoor and outdoor rides and attractions as well as its hotel.

It has undergone several renovations, expansions and improvements, including a $1 million project completed at the casino in 2005.

Bally Technologies information says its history dates to 1932 and that it is the world’s No. 1 gaming-systems company. Rainbow is the only casino it owns – and current thinking is apparently to revert to gaming-systems only.

&#8220We are (Bally’s) last non-core asset,” Follmer said.

No Bally spokesman was available.

Casinos were authorized in selected Mississippi counties in 1990 and by referendum in Warren County in 1992. Harrah’s opened Mississippi’s first casino-hotel in November 1994 and was the first local operator to sell. It is now Horizon.

The Isle of Capri was the first casino to open here when it opened in August 1993. In July, that company sold Vicksburg and Bossier City, La., operations to DiamondJacks.

Ameristar, which opened in February 1994, is the largest casino here and commands the largest market share. The company is completing the first of two parking garages and plans a second hotel as part of a $150 million expansion now under way.

Two additional casino developments have won state regulatory approval, one near Rainbow, and one about a mile south of there.