St. Louis (AP) -- Ameristar Casinos Inc. is laying off workers at its St. Charles and Kansas City casinos as part of a national reduction in work force. Rebecca Theim from Ameristar's corporate office in Las Vegas said workers were notified Friday. She said Ameristar tried various measures to avoid layoffs, but they weren't enough in the worsening economy. Ameristar's casino and hotel in St. Charles will lose 6 percent of its staff.

Due to plummeting revenues, Pinnacle Entertainment has shelved plans to acquire rival Ameristar Casinos. Pinnacle saw a net loss of USD 18.1 million (30 cents per share) in second quarter 2008, compared with a net income of USD 9.9 million (16 cents a share) in the same quarter of 2007. Analysts had predicted a net loss of 2 cents per share.

New York (Reuters) - Ameristar Casinos, one of the few U.S. gaming companies with no presence on the glamorous Las Vegas Strip or Atlantic City, hardly seems like a tempting takeover target, especially amid a gambling slowdown. Yet buyout rumors are swirling around Ameristar, the operator of casinos in such off-the-beaten-track locations as Jackpot, Nevada and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The USD 30 million re-branding of the former Resorts/Harrah’s riverboat as the Ameristar Casino Hotel in East Chicago, Indiana, is virtually complete. After three inaugural concerts scheduled over the past weekend, only a Starbucks remains to be built on the casino pavilion beside Lake Michigan. The renovation readies the boat to compete with the new Horseshoe casino opening next month in nearby Hammond...

Sydney (Reuters) - Australian gaming group Crown Ltd denied widespread speculation on Thursday that it wanted to buy U.S. casino group Ameristar Casinos Inc. Australian newspapers said earlier in the day that Crown, controlled by billionaire James Packer, could switch its sights to Ameristar after it pulled out of a USD 5 billion casino project in Las Vegas last month.