Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic Raises More Than $1.1 Million for Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and Christopher & Dana Reeve ...( Event Raises $4.6 M...)

Event Raises $4.6 Million in Four Years

ST. CHARLES, Mo., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ameristar Casinos, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASCA), announced today that the fourth annual Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic, hosted by the Ameristar Cares Foundation, the Company's philanthropic arm, has raised more than $1.1 million this year to benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

The benefit will be held Oct. 6-7 at the Ameristar Casino Resort Spa and the Whitmoor Country Club. Scheduled to attend are former NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti and his son, Marc, who together created The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis after a college football injury left Marc Buoniconti paralyzed, and Alexandra Reeve, daughter of the late actor Christopher Reeve, who led his foundation's efforts to fund spinal cord injury research and treatment after he was paralyzed in an equestrian accident.

The event is dedicated to Craig H. Neilsen, Ameristar's late founder, whose injuries in a 1985 automobile accident left him a quadriplegic. Neilsen spent the next 21 years building Ameristar into a successful gaming and entertainment company with properties across the country. He also established and funded The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, which focuses on sponsoring innovative research for spinal cord injuries and disease, and supporting quality-of-life programs for those living with spinal cord injuries and disease. Craig Neilsen died Nov. 19, 2006.

"It means so much to me and everyone at Ameristar that my father's commitment to discovering a cure for spinal cord injuries continues in this country," said Ray Neilsen, Craig Neilsen's son, and Chairman of Ameristar Casinos,
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