Fourth time the charm?; Paging Sheldon Adelson

Gaming-management company Foundation Gaming Group likes DiamondJacks Casino in Vicksburg, it’s buying the place outright — a change of style for Foundation, which prefers running casinos to owning them. There may be some nostalgia in the decision by Foundation COO Les McMackin, a veteran of the Bernie Goldstein era at Isle of Capri Casinos, when DiamondJacks was an Isle-branded property. It was sold to Legends Gaming and went belly-up twice. The casino is currently owned by creditors.

Fortunately, in addition to running a casino in Bossier City, Foundation is something of a turnaround expert. It took over Resorts Casino & Hotel and Bally’s Casino & Hotel, both in Tunica, after Colony Capital ran them into the ground. Both are now in the hands of creditors. (See a pattern here?) The Vicksburg market has been a challenged one for some time now and S&G wishes McMackin & Co. the best of luck with DiamondJacks.

* The Downtown Grand is attempting to reverse in fortunes by, in part, getting in on the ground floor of skill-based slot games. VegasInc. offers a preview of what we might expect to see, especially with Downtown Grand Chairman Marc  Seth Schorr sitting on the board of GameCo., one of the skill-based pioneers.

* Resorts World Las Vegas isn’t the only project getting back-burnered by Genting Group. At its Malaysian headquarters, Genting Highlands, it has postponed the opening of a 20th Century Fox amusement park sometime into 2017. As though to make up for the disappointment, Genting has promised “the new shopping mall/podium and additional gaming capacity will come on stream from the second half of 2016 onwards,” not at the end of the year, as previously thought. Genting said it was “undergoing a review” of the theme park due to the weakness of Malaysian currency. Visitation is not a problem: It’s up 7% in the first half of 2015, with tourists from China making a particular contribution.

* Israel‘s lack of a casino industry is Cyprus‘ gain, as it sees an annual influx of at least 40,000 Israeli punters. (The numbers are rather dated.) South Cyprus wants to get in on the action via an integrated resort. What’s missing here? Well, an Israeli megaresort or two, for starters. Our solution to the problem of the outflux of Israeli capital consists of two words: Sheldon Adelson.