Station Casinos announced this morning it swung to a loss in the third quarter as the slowing economy took its toll on the largest operator of suburban casinos in Las Vegas. The locals casino company reported a loss of USD 23.4 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30. That compares to income of USD 3.7 million for the third quarter in 2007. Net revenues dropped 10 percent from last year to USD 317 million. Station's earnings, before certain expenses, fell 13 percent in the third quarter to USD 108.7 million.

The challenge for Station Casinos in opening Aliante Station is to not scare away the customers. In other words, the USD 662 million North Las Vegas hotel-casino may resemble Red Rock Resort in Summerlin, but it better not have Red Rock prices. Aliante Station executives seem to have to have taken that thought to heart. "The key is to have approachable price points, to correctly market the property and to be smart enough to understand our customer base,"...

Station Casinos will begin taking applications Sunday for more than 1,000 jobs at Aliante Station, the company’s 10th major property in town, which is scheduled to open in North Las Vegas Nov. 11. The first step in the hiring drill can be accomplished from home: Call a toll free number (800-720-2127) or go online (“Careers” at www.stationcasinos.com).

Station Casinos announced plans for a major development that is not only the most ambitious project in the company’s history, but also the most expensive project in the city of Las Vegas. The company has tentative plans to build a mega resort near Tropicana and the I-15- the current site of Wild Wild West- that will be bigger that MGM Mirage’s CityCenter. The project, that bears the working title “Viva,” would carry a price tag of USD 10 billion.

Crown Ltd. has increased its interest in the Las Vegas gaming market by spending USD 414 million for minority stakes in Harrah’s Entertainment and Station Casinos, the Australian gaming company revealed. However, the Melbourne, Australia-based company also suggested that a proposed USD 5 billion hotel-casino project slated for the former Wet ’n Wild site may be in jeopardy because of the tightening credit markets.

Las Vegas (AP) - Station Casinos has cleared its final hurdle to going private. The Las Vegas-based company's USD 5.4 billion buyout has won approval from the National Indian Gaming Commission, according to regulatory filings submitted Friday. The Indian commission's approval clears the way for the $ 90 per share buyout to close early next week, possibly by Tuesday, the filing said. Station agreed in February to a buyout offer by an investor group that includes members of the company's founding family.

Casino operator Station Casinos said last week that it plans to delist its common stock from the New York Stock Exchange immediately after its USD 5.4 billion acquisition is complete. Station agreed in February to a buyout offer by an investor group that includes members of the family that founded it. Shareholders representing 79 percent of the stock approved the USD 90-per-share offer by Fertitta Colony Partners LLC in August.

Steve Wynn invited the wrath of Wall Street soon after the 1999 opening of his USD 680 million Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss., which earned less than analysts expected. Mirage Resorts' stock tanked, and Wynn, criticized for overspending on the posh property, faced an unwelcome offer the following year from Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Grand - a bid that ended with Wynn's company and his most precious of creations, the immensely profitable Bellagio, being wrested from him.

A complex USD 8.9 billion stock buyout-debt assumption of Station Casinos by members of its founding Las Vegas family and real estate investment firm Colony Capital was endorsed Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Under the takeover deal, brothers Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta, top executives of Station Casinos Inc. are joining with California-based Colony to form Fertitta Colony Partners, which will take over Station's 12 casinos in the Las Vegas area and other interests.

Las Vegas (AP) -- Shareholders of Station Casinos Inc. approved a USD 5.4 billion takeover bid Monday from a private equity investor group that includes key members of the neighborhood casino operator's founding family. At a special meeting attended by more than 100 shareholders, chief executive Frank J. Fertitta III said the going-private transaction, for USD 90 a share, had been approved. There was no shareholder discussion, and the meeting was over in about 20 minutes.