{"id":757,"date":"2008-07-17T17:49:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-18T01:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/7\/17\/The-Ameristar-war-begins"},"modified":"2008-07-17T17:49:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-18T01:49:00","slug":"the-ameristar-war-begins-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-ameristar-war-begins-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ameristar war begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a quick hit on my way out the door to spend an evening prepping for The Dark Knight<\/em> by watching Batman Begins<\/em> …<\/p>\n

Ameristar<\/strong>'s in play. No news flash there and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why the Motley Fool<\/em> thinks MGM Mirage<\/strong> will be the ultimate acquirer. The company doesn't seem particularly interested in regional markets these days and has been pulling back from some of them — the same outstate-Nevada kinds in which Ameristar currently operates.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, as the article points out Crown Ltd.<\/strong> has $5 billion burning a hole in its pocket after the Las Vegas Tower<\/strong> deal went limp. I don't know offhand what the seven-times-cash flow number for Ameristar is, but $5 billion should cover it with room to spare. The Fool<\/em> lays out a compelling case<\/a> for how Crown could use Ameristar's properties to funnel customers to Fontainebleau<\/strong> — much as Harrah's Entertainment<\/strong> did with The Rio<\/strong>, back in the Phil Satre<\/strong> era.<\/p>\n

Then again, there's Penn National<\/strong>, which has about $500 million in mad money (after stock buybacks) right now, thanks to the breakup fee from its busted IPO. With another $775 million promised to Penn, it ought to be able to ante up the acquisition fee without breaking a sweat. Ameristar's Missouri properties have been money-spinners and, as the Fool<\/em> points out, the acquisition of the Ameristar brand would enhance Penn's persistent second-tier image. A combined Penn-Ameristar would give Pinnacle Entertainment<\/strong> a run for its money in St. Louis, and could regain ground being lost to MGM and Harrah's in the greater Chicago market.<\/p>\n

Whoever loses needn't feel too bad. The Atlantic City Tropicana<\/strong> is still out there and debtors will probably force a sale of the rag-tag remnants of Columbia Sussex<\/strong>'s casino 'empire.' With its market cap languishing around $837 million, Boyd Gaming<\/strong> looks vulnerable and if you're in a thrift-store mood, Isle of Capri<\/strong>'s fallen to near-micro-cap status, at $157 million. Then again, you have to figure out how to turn around 'Pile of Debris.' So maybe it's not such a bargain after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a quick hit on my way out the door to spend an evening prepping for The Dark Knight by watching Batman Begins … Ameristar's in play. No news flash there and, for the life of me, I can't figure … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,60,15,7,58,68,85,96,11,69,95,30,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}