What are …

… three casinos, two golf courses, a shooting range, a bunch of condos and some miscellaneous real estate worth? If they’re in Mesquite and they’re owned by the disaster area that is Black Gaming, they’re worth no more than $90 million in toto. Yet somehow CEO Randy Black was able to leverage them up to $253 million, an upside-down asset-to-value ratio that’s going to leave a lot of creditors twisting in the wind. The secured creditors want to keep Black’s casinos up and running, while his unsecured debtors would evidently prefer to shut them down, thereby stopping the outflow of cash. I imagine unsecured Station Casinos creditors are feeling comparable spilkes when they see the gold-plated legal bills the Fertitta Brothers are racking up.

Aria deals galore. Between now and April 8, MGM Mirage is busting out a slew of incentives to drive business at Aria. If I read the e-mail blast aright, a $129 midweek or $159 midweek booking automatically gets you an upgrade to a City View room (two-night minimum), while $50 more buys you a corner suite (and, man, they are spacious). For $279 on weekdays and $309 on weekends, MGM Mirage is offering hitherto-exclusive Sky Suites … so exclusive that media weren’t allowed to see them during our pre-opening walk-throughs, not even the lobby. Use of promo code ARSDS gets you a $75 credit, applicable toward dining, the spa, the beauty salon and — beLIEve it or not — Viva Elvis.

Speaking of which (if we must), I’m reliably informed that Tuesday’s early show came to a grinding halt after the second number, due to “technical difficulties” and could not be resumed. What’s the over/under on when Cirque du Soleil announces imminent “fixations”?