Las Vegas’ Circus Circus Enterprises Strikes Gold : Gambling: $450-million deal will make it the country’s largest casino operator.

Circus Circus Enterprises Inc., the Las Vegas casino owner, said Monday it will acquire Gold Strike Resorts in a $450-million deal that would create the nation’s largest casino operator.

Circus said it will acquire privately held Gold Strike in an exchange of 17 million of its own shares and $12 million in cash.

A Circus spokesman said the company also will assume $135 million of Gold Strike’s debt.

He said the acquisition will make Circus the largest U.S. casino operator, with Mirage Resorts Inc., holding the No. 2 position. Circus earned $136 million last year on revenue of $1.8 billion.

Circus’ stock, which has been boosted recently by takeover rumors, rocketed $3.625 a share to close at $28.875 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Gold Strike has three gambling casinos in Nevada--Gold Strike, Nevada Landing and Railroad Pass--as well as a 50% stake in the Grand Victoria riverboat in Elgin, Ill.

The company is also developing a major resort on the Las Vegas Strip in a venture with Mirage Resorts.

“Gold Strike is a highly profitable company with operating margins that are at the top of the industry,” said Circus Chairman Clyde Turner.

“This company provides us with more strong market locations and depth in management that will solidify the foundation to take us forward,” he said.

Circus has eight properties in Nevada--Luxor, Excalibur, the Circus resorts in Las Vegas and Reno, the Colorado Belle and Edgewater in Laughlin, and Slots-A-Fun and Silver City in Las Vegas.

It also operates Circus Circus-Tunica, a riverboat casino in Tunica County, Miss., and has a one-third stake in Windsor Casino, a casino in Windsor, Canada.

Under terms of the acquisition, Michael Ensign, Circus’ chief operating officer before he left the company to form Gold Strike, will become Circus’ vice chairman and chief operating officer. Ensign was chief operating officer at Circus until the company went public in 1983. Turner will remain Circus’ chairman and chief executive, the company said, and Gold Strike co-founder William Richardson will become executive vice president of Circus.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in 60 to 90 days.