Ameristar Casinos, Inc. : Ameristar Casinos announces closing of purchase of casino resort development site in Springfield, Mass.

CONTACT:
Roxann M. Kinkade, APR
Director of Communications
Ameristar Casinos, Inc.
816-414-7007

LAS VEGAS, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012-Ameristar Casinos, Inc. (NASDAQ-GS: ASCA) announced today it has closed on the purchase of a 41-acre site in Springfield, Mass., with the intent to apply for the sole casino license for western Massachusetts and, if awarded, build a luxury hotel and entertainment resort.

"We now own what we believe to be the premier location for a casino in western Massachusetts," said Gordon Kanofsky, Ameristar's Chief Executive Officer. "Our proposed resort will directly create thousands of much needed new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of economic development investment to further the revitalization of the demographic center of the region.In addition, our resort will provide a catalyst for ancillary economic development and jobs through the growth of other businesses in Springfield."

Ameristar purchased the site at Page Blvd. and Interstate Highway 291 for $16 million from an affiliate of the O'Connell Development Group Inc.  Westinghouse, which once employed approximately 7,000 people in manufacturing operations at the site, vacated the property in 1970.Although it was later used for other light industrial purposes, the site recently had been vacant.The buildings on the site have been razed, and the property is being delivered to Ameristar substantially ready for construction.

Ameristar's development plans are preliminary but are expected to include a state-of-the-art casino continuously updated with the newest and most popular slot machines (a hallmark of the Ameristar brand) and a variety of table games, a luxury hotel, a diverse offering of dining venues, retail outlets, entertainment and meeting space and structured parking.

"We are very excited about the opportunity this resort will bring to our company," said Kanofsky, "and we look forward to creating a property that provides strong synergies with the Springfield community."

Forward-Looking Information
This release contains certain forward-looking information that generally can be identified by the context of the statement or the use of forward-looking terminology, such as "believes," "estimates," "anticipates," "intends," "expects," "plans," "is confident that," "should" or words of similar meaning, with reference to Ameristar or our management.Similarly, statements that describe our future plans, objectives, strategies, financial results or position, operational expectations or goals are forward-looking statements.It is possible that our expectations may not be met due to various factors, many of which are beyond our control, and we therefore cannot give any assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.For a discussion of relevant factors, risks and uncertainties that could materially affect our future results, attention is directed to "Item 1A. Risk Factors" and "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011 and "Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

About Ameristar
Ameristar Casinos is an innovative casino gaming company featuring the newest and most popular slot machines. Our 7,500 dedicated team members pride themselves on delivering consistently friendly and appreciative service to our guests. We continuously strive to increase the loyalty of our guests through the quality of our slot machines, table games, hotel, dining and other leisure offerings. Our eight casino hotel propertiesprimarily serve guests from Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska and Nevada. We have been a public company since 1993, and our stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.We generatemore than $1 billion in net revenues annually.