Colony Capital and the Fertitta family has accepted the inevitable after a number of lawsuits saying the original $4.7 billion undervalued the company and raised their offer to $5.4 billion. That makes it a deal, reports the Associated Press.

The deal still allows Station another 30 days to find a better deal. That provision is rarely if ever used and it’s hard to see complete strangers even trying to top this effort.

The key issue is the big, very big, debt. The extra $700 million, which will probably be put on the credit card, will mean the company’s debt-to-earnings ratio will be well above the traditionally acceptable level. In the late 1990s, consumer businesses like Purina Ralston, which were thought to have a healthy cash flow, defaulted because they could not pay the interest.

Even the recent Kinder Morgan buyout deal will leave that company with a debt-to-earnings ratio of six. The Station debt will be well north of nine times earnings. Presumably, the numbers have been crunched but there are similar questions about this deal as the Harrah’s buyout: How can Station maintain its construction program and service its debt? (It just broke ground on Aliante Station last week, although we know nothing more is happening at Red Rock.) Or will Station have to sell strategic parcels like Durango Station? Or will it hold a firesale for some of its lesser properties like Fiesta?

One thing we can be sure of, though, is that the Gaming Control Board will sleep easy at night knowing that these unprecedented levels of indebtedness are simply another evolution in casino finance.