Case Bets: Station, Macao, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, Encore 2x, etc.

$864.5 million: That’s the magic number if you want to put in an opening bid on 11 Station Casinos properties (plus unspecified land and some tribal-casino-management contracts) come Aug. 6. Boyd Gaming‘s already made it clear that it’s good for that and more but the sweetheart deal approved by Judge Gregg Zive enables Station insiders to buy the company for $92.5 million less — an 11% discount.

Unless Boyd puts its money on the table and draws sock-puppet stalking-horse bidder Fertitta Gaming into a bidding war, it looks like game, set and match to the Fertittas. It would be interesting, though, to see how high Boyd could get Fertitta Gaming to go. Its backer, Colony Capital, is no slouch when it comes to throwing good money after bad, so it would be morbidly amusing if Colony CEO Tom Barrack got taken to the cleaners … again, paying top dollar for the same assets, two times running.

Ka-CHING! Preliminary indications are that casino revenues in Macao were up 99% (no, that’s not a typo) from May 2009 and +24% from this past April. The Macanese market continues to heat up something fierce, to the tune of as much as $2.2 billion last month. Sure, the Encore Macau opening didn’t hurt but what is of even greater significance is the nearly surreptitious reintroduction of a visa scheme that permits mainlanders to move into and out of Macao via a third-party nation. While governmental stimulus money represents 12% of China‘s GDP, the country’s normally iron-fisted rulers can’t be too worried about a cash drain into Macao’s casino coffers if that roundabout means of allowing VIP players into the protectorate is back in action.

Isle + 1. Regulators in Mississippi have given their blessing to Bally Technologies‘ sale of its Rainbow riverboat casino to Isle of Capri Casinos. The $80 million transaction takes effect June 9 but don’t expect any Isle rebranding until 2011.

Boffo biz at Encore Beach Club. If patrons are spending as much as $15K per cabaña and $30K per bungalow at Encore‘s brand-new douchebag magnet (see @vegaschatter‘s Twitter photostream), per J.P. Morgan intel, then Steve Wynn‘s got few worries. Whoever may be lacking for discretionary income, it’s not the high-end customers that Wynn covets — and gets.

And you thought CityCenter was dangerous! A casino site in Baltimore has run afoul of a few carcinogenic substances (arsenic, chromium and tetrachloroethylene) that’ll have to be remediated before construction can begin, in the latest setback for Maryland‘s nascent casino industry. Perhaps the gaming management could be farmed out to Fertitta Gaming, with the slot house renamed “Toxic Station.”

Pinnacle, Ameristar back in the game. In the wake of Harrah’s Entertainment‘s buyout of bankrupt Thistledown Race Track in Ohio, it emerges that Pinnacle Entertainment was among the spurned bidders. Hopefully, this means that Pinnacle management — lately in full-scale retreat — hasn’t abandoned all thoughts of expansion, provided they’re cost-effective ones.

Although Isle of Capri and its Missouri partners are the presumed frontrunners if the state’s 13th casino license goes to Cape Girardeau, a new contender may be on the horizon. Ameristar Casinos — whether out of fear of additional St. Louis competition, altruism or the hope of breaching a new market — is advocating moving the license downriver. S&G doubts that Ameristar as much as promised the Show-Me State $23.5 million in annual taxes from the Cape Girardeau region just for its health. If über-cautious Ameristar is truly contemplating new-casino development, that’s the best indicator to date that regional markets have bottomed out. After all, Ameristar was trimming its sails well before the Great Recession took hold.