Rainbow Casino being offered for sale by Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies did not catch industry analysts by surprise – in fact, they said, it had long been on the Bally’s to-do list since deciding to focus only on its gaming device interests.

&#8220It may not be the first time it’s been offered,” said Lawrence Klatzkin, an industry analyst with the New York office of global investment bank Jefferies & Company.

Rainbow, the company’s only casino property, was often used as a testing ground for machines and other items on Bally’s main product line, said Aimee Marcel, another Jefferies & Company analyst.

Given trends of stocks that usually dictate what high-end commercial properties sell for, the casino-hotel complex at 1380 Warrenton Road should net its parent company at least $120 million, Marcel said.

The Los Angeles office of global financial services institution Credit Suisse was handling offers for the 35,000-square-foot casino boat. Calls to Bally Technologies offices in Las Vegas were not immediately returned.

Meanwhile, the executive director of Mississippi’s casino licensing board said Tuesday he expects some movement on the planned $42 million Riverwalk Casino, which has cleared regulatory steps to be built just north of Rainbow near the Warrenton neighborhood.

&#8220I feel pretty confident they will be back before us in November or December,” said Larry K. Gregory of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, who based his confidence on recent discussions with its developers. The commission meets next on Nov. 16.

The development received its site approval in July 2005 and its development plan approved five months later. Its site approval expires July 14, 2007.

The time frame is shorter for Lakes Gaming Mississippi LLC, as its site approval expires Feb. 16, 2007.

&#8220I have not heard from them for the past several months,” Gregory said.

Site approval is the first of three phases for licensing casino ventures in Mississippi. The second is a more detailed site development plan. After a group is given two years to do so, it must present a financial package to the commission for approval. A license is then issued.

That third step is usually the most difficult in the process, Gregory said.

&#8220Unless we get definite commitments from their financial institutions, we don’t allow a project to proceed,” Gregory said, adding that slower-than-expected financing is the reason &#8220most of the time” when a casino development group waits until the last available months to appear before state regulators.

Calls to Lakes Entertainment offices outside Minneapolis were not returned.

Also, a 40-acre site on the former Vicksburg Chemical property in development by Mississippi Bluffs LLC was approved by the commission in July. The site is being looked at by a Denver-based developer both for casino development and a professional-level golf course.

As for Rainbow, if the youngest of Vicksburg’s four original casinos is purchased, it would be the third of the four to change ownership.

Harrah’s opened and operated the first casino-hotel here in November 1993 and was renamed Horizon upon its sale to Columbia Sussex Corp. Vicksburg’s first casino, Isle of Capri, was sold this year to Illinois-based startup Legends Gaming LLC and renamed DiamondJacks.

Rainbow general manager Curt Follmer said the casino’s parent company, Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies Inc., formerly Alliance Gaming Corp., has been divesting itself of its holdings that did not fit into the &#8220manufacturing and technology realm” for about the last five years.

&#8220This is a process that’s been going on for some time,” Follmer said.

Moves were made toward that end earlier this year, including a name change in March to Bally Technologies Inc. and an announced deal last month to provide a comprehensive casino management system for the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs harness racing facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Now an industry leader in gaming systems with 345,000 machines using its technology in 625 locations worldwide, Bally Technologies was started in 1932 as Bally Manufacturing, an incarnation avid video game enthusiasts may remember as a co-distributor of two of the 1980s’ most successful arcade games: Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Based in downtown Chicago for more than 50 years, the company was a lead innovator in early slot machines and other amusement games, including the first pinball machine made following World War II with &#8220flippers” on the side.

In addition to its foray into the video game craze in the 1980s, the company snapped up and owned for short periods various other entertainment-related ventures, including major theme-park operator Six Flags Corporation, MGM Grand hotels in Las Vegas and Reno, the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City and the Health & Tennis Corporation, a major health club operator.

The company merged with Alliance Gaming Corporation in 1996 but was not an immediate success, nearly being de-listed from the Nasdaq in 2000. However, by 2002, Alliance was able to move to the New York Stock Exchange.

Tuesday, Bally Technologies’ stock traded at $19.31 a share on the Exchange, down over half a point from Monday.