It’s a model that is colloquially referred to as opco/propco, and both Crown and the Star have dabbled with this idea at various times.

Last Friday’s offer for Crown from Blackstone at $12.50 is its third and most generous - although it has still been branded as a touch opportunistic.

Packer and the Crown board will be hoping that this announcement will bring other interested parties out of the woodwork. And shareholders generally will be hoping that Crown offers Blackstone due diligence - which is a condition of its offer and without which the bid is stillborn.

Meanwhile, Blackstone is out marketing the appeal of its offer as a condition-lite opportunity for shareholders to get quick cash - given it is saying it is well advanced in receiving regulatory approvals.

The offer was also exquisitely timed to take advantage of Star Entertainment’s preoccupation with its regulatory issues. Despite media allegations around shortfalls in Star’s approach to anti-money laundering, there is little chance the group is considered likely to lose its casino licence.

Some analysts believe that Star will join the bidding war for Crown, regardless of being caught wrong-footed on timing.

Earlier this year Star hit Crown with a merger proposal that it ultimately withdrew due to the uncertainties surrounding Crown being able to retain its Victorian licence.

That risk has now all but disappeared.

The merger idea still has merit - whether it is ultimately orchestrated by a Blackstone-owned Crown, by Star or even a Blackstone-owned Star.

The path may be circuitous, but the sector may end up consolidated into one large operating casino company with licences in each state and one large trust which owns all the properties.

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For many months there has also been speculation that if Star was unsuccessful in its merger with Crown it would turn its attention to Skycity- which owns Adelaide’s only casino and another property in Auckland.

The synergies created would offer a path to extracting better earnings from the industry, which looks likely to struggle with revenue growth.

Thanks to already started enhanced regulation by various state governments, Australian casinos will experience increases to their costs. And they will find that the ‘cost of doing business properly and within regulatory parameters’ exceeds their historical cost of doing business.

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