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Press Release: Ameristar Casinos, Inc.
December 17, 2002
LAS VEGAS, NV -- Ameristar Casinos, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASCA) yesterday announced that Ameristar Casino Kansas City has
made a four-year, $1 million commitment to the Port Authority/Ameristar Casino Foundation for the Advancement of
Women and Minorities in Business. The Foundation will be administered by the Kansas City Community Foundation under
the direction of an advisory committee appointed by the Port Authority of Kansas City, Missouri. The fund will
benefit and support minority- and women-owned business enterprises through low-interest loans and grants for business
development and educational purposes.
Ameristar presented $400,000, which represents the first installment of the four-year pledge, to the Foundation
today at the Economic Development Council offices in Kansas City, Missouri. Additional contributions of $200,000
will be made annually through 2005.
Ameristar made an initial commitment to provide $1 million to a nonprofit fund to benefit minority- and women-owned
businesses when it purchased Ameristar Casino Kansas City in December 2000, pending the completion of a formal
structure for the fund mutually approved by Ameristar and the Port Authority of Kansas City.
Craig H. Neilsen, Ameristar's President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are very pleased to present
this first contribution to the Port Authority/Ameristar Casino Foundation for the Advancement of Women and Minorities
in Business. We are excited these funds are now going to be available for the start-up and growth of minority-
and women-owned businesses in Kansas City."
Troy Stremming, Ameristar's Vice President of Legal and Governmental affairs, gave details of Ameristar's continuing
support of minority- and women-owned businesses: "Ameristar is proud of our commitment to provide equal opportunity
to vendors and suppliers. Ameristar Casino Kansas City currently counts nearly 70 minority- and women-owned businesses
among its vendors and has purchased some $4 million worth of operating goods and services from this group during
the last year. In addition, more than 60 percent of the $20 million construction costs associated with the property's
new parking garage built in 2001 and 2002 were paid to minority- and women-owned businesses. Ameristar Casino Kansas
City also recently hosted a summit for the promotion of minority- and women-owned businesses to purchasing managers
from area casinos, which was so well-received that we hope to make it an annual event."
At least $200,000 of the distributions from the fund will be for direct grants for educational or development purposes,
and at least 40 percent of the distributions from the fund will be for direct loans or as collateral to secure
loans from banks or other financial institutions to provide developmental support. At least 20 percent of the distributions
from the fund will provide developmental support to minorities and women in business who have ongoing contracts
to provide goods or services to area casinos, for direct loans or as collateral to secure loans from banks or other
financial institutions. The remainder of the distributions from the fund may be used for educational or developmental
support, or for research directed at increasing the effectiveness of minority- and women-owned businesses in Kansas
City. Special consideration will be given to business opportunities in federally approved Enhanced Enterprise Community
areas within Kansas City. No single recipient, including affiliated businesses and their immediate family members,
may receive more than $100,000 from the fund.
The Foundation also established an independent advisory committee, consisting of five area minority and women business
and civic leaders selected by the Port Authority, to advise on allocation of the fund. The initial members of the
Foundation advisory committee, serving for terms of up to three years, are:
Michael Dayton, Director of Finance and SBA Micro Enterprise Program, Community Development Corporation; Marcos
DeLeon, Vice-president of Human Resources, Bernstein-Rein Advertising; Carlos Ledezma, Cable Dahmer Chevrolet;
Joi Preciphs, Freelance Writer, Public Involvement Activities -- Transportation Department, Mid-America Regional
Council (MARC); and Adam Sachs, Vice-president and General Counsel, Wheat Government Relations.
Ameristar Casinos, Inc. is an innovative, Las Vegas-based gaming and entertainment company known for its distinctive,
quality conscious hotel-casinos and value orientation. Led by President and Chief Executive Officer Craig H. Neilsen,
the organization's roots go back nearly five decades to a tiny roadside casino in the high plateau country that
borders Idaho and Nevada. Publicly held since November 1993, the corporation owns and operates six properties in
Nevada, Missouri, Iowa and Mississippi, two of which carry the prestigious American Automobile Association's Four
Diamond designation. Ameristar's Common Stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol:
ASCA.
Visit Ameristar Casinos' Web site at www.ameristarcasinos.com
(which shall not be deemed to be incorporated in or a part of this news release).
Source: Ameristar Casinos, Inc.