Ameristar Casinos Inc., the owner and manager of eight U.S. casinos, including one in Council Bluffs, is evaluating a possible sale among other strategic alternatives.

The Las Vegas-based company hired Lazard Ltd. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch as financial advisers and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP as a legal adviser to evaluate “strategic alternatives to enhance stockholder value,” according to a statement from Ameristar last week.

About 55 percent of Ameristar’s shares are administered by the estate of founder Craig Neilsen on behalf of his foundation. Neilsen died in 2006, and Ameristar has been seen as an acquisition target ever since.

The one-year lapse of the U.S. estate tax in 2010 “is speculated to be the motivation for a more formal sale process at this time,” said Bill Lerner, a Las Vegas-based analyst at Union Gaming Group LLC. The lapse was part of a 2001 tax cut package that former President George W. Bush pushed through Congress.

Ameristar’s other casinos are in Missouri, Colorado, Mississippi, Indiana and Nevada.