Boyd Gaming Corp.

File:Boyd Gaming.svg
Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: BYD
Industry	Gambling, Hotels, Entertainment
Founder(s)	Sam Boyd, Bill Boyd
Headquarters	Paradise, Nevada, United States
Products	Casinos, Hotels
Revenue	US$2.14B (FY 2010)[1]
Operating income	US$176M (FY 2010)[1]
Net income	US$10.3M (FY 2010)[1]
Total assets	US$5.70B (FY 2010)[2]
Total equity	US$1.19B (FY 2010)[2]
Employees	15,400
Website	www.boydgaming.com

Boyd Gaming Corporation is a Paradise, Nevada based business engaged in the development, ownership and operation of hotels and casinos throughout the United States. The company continues to be run by founder Sam Boyd's family under the management of Sam's son, Bill Boyd (born 1931), who currently serves as the company's executive chairman after retiring as CEO in January 2008.

As of 31 December 2009, the 15 wholly owned properties had 7,550 hotel rooms, 812,500 square feet (75,480 m²) of casino space with 21,400 slot machines and 425 table games. Gaming revenue is 75% of total gross revenue.^[3]

In addition the corporation has a 50% share in the Borgata, Atlantic City's top-grossing casino resort.

History[link]

Boyd Gaming's history dates to 1941, when founder Sam Boyd first arrived in Las Vegas with his family. After being hired as a dealer, Sam Boyd worked his way up through the ranks of the Las Vegas casino industry, first to pit boss, then shift boss. He eventually saved enough to buy a small interest in the Sahara Hotel and Casino; later, Sam Boyd left the Sahara to become general manager and partner of The Mint Las Vegas.

Sam Boyd first partnered with his son Bill in 1962, when the two teamed up to acquire the Eldorado Casino in Henderson, Nevada. Bill, who was then a practicing attorney, acquired his first stake in the Eldorado by doing its legal work. Sam would go on to manage the Eldorado full-time after the Mint was sold in 1968.

Boyd Gaming's current headquarters in unincorporated Spring Valley, a Las Vegas suburb

Boyd Gaming's former headquarters at Howard Hughes Center

Although the Boyd family had been involved in the Las Vegas casino industry for decades, Boyd Gaming Corporation wasn't founded until January 1, 1975, when the company was formed to develop and operate the California Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas. Then known as the Boyd Group, the company initially had 75 investors.

Boyd Gaming embarked on its first expansion in 1979, when it opened Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall on Boulder Highway at Nellis Boulevard. Considered one of the first "locals" properties in Las Vegas, Sam's Town helped inaugurate the later development of Las Vegas' "Boulder Strip."

During these first two decades in operation, Sam and Bill Boyd developed a reputation for running a squeaky-clean operation. As a result, Nevada regulators turned to the Boyds for help following an investigation of skimming operations at the Stardust and Fremont casinos in the mid-1980s. The properties were notorious at the time for their extensive skimming operations; according to the FBI, anywhere from $7 million to $15 million in funds from the Stardust were diverted to organized crime figures between 1974 and 1976 alone.^[4]

In 1984, after leveling a $3 million fine against the Stardust for skimming, the Nevada Gaming Commission asked to Boyds to run the property's gaming operations. When the Stardust was taken over by the reputable Boyd family, they were surprised by its huge profits, now that every penny of income was being recorded. Ex-FBI agent William F. Roemer Jr., longtime senior agent of the FBI's organized-crime squad in Chicago and an expert in Las Vegas doings, said, "The amount of skim had been so heavy that the profit and loss statement did not present a true picture of the gold mine that the Stardust was."^[5] After several years of successful operations, Boyd Gaming officially acquired the Stardust and Fremont in 1985.

Company founder Sam Boyd died on January 15, 1993, at the age of 82, and was succeeded as Chief Executive Officer by Bill Boyd. In July of the same year, Boyd Gaming held its initial public offering of stock, debuting on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol "BYD."

Funds from the IPO supplied Boyd Gaming with a source of capital for expansion, and the company embarked on a period of aggressive growth. The company acquired the Eldorado and Jokers Wild (which had previously been owned directly by the Boyd family) in 1993; later that year, Boyd Gaming acquired Main Street Station Hotel and Casino and Brewery.

The company's first expansion outside of Nevada came in 1994, when Boyd Gaming opened Sam's Town in Tunica, Miss. Later expansions included:

• Silver Star Hotel and Casino, owned by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (opened in 1994; management contract expired in 2000);
• Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner, Louisiana (Boyd owned 15% of the property at its 1994 opening, before acquiring Treasure Chest outright in 1997);
• Sam's Town Kansas City (opened 1995, closed 1998);
• Par-A-Dice Hotel and Casino in East Peoria, Ill. (acquired in 1996);
• Blue Chip Casino, Hotel and Spa in Michigan City, Ind. (acquired in 1999);
• Delta Downs Racetrack Casino & Hotel, Vinton, Louisiana (acquired in 2001);
• Sam's Town Shreveport (formerly Harrah's Shreveport; acquired from Harrah's Entertainment in 2004).

Boyd Gaming's most ambitious expansion project came in 2003, when the company opened the $1.1 billion Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. A joint venture with MGM Resorts International, Borgata was the first new casino property to open in Atlantic City in 13 years, and quickly emerged as the market's leading property by gaming revenue. Borgata is by far Boyd Gaming's largest property, and currently supplies more than a third of the company's overall profits.

Less than a year after Borgata opened, Boyd Gaming announced plans to acquire Coast Casinos, Inc., one of the largest operators of locals casinos in the Las Vegas market. Completed on July 1, 2004, the $1.3 billion acquisition gave Boyd Gaming four additional Las Vegas properties—Suncoast, Gold Coast, the Orleans and Barbary Coast.

The Coast acquisition also included the yet-to-be completed South Coast, located five miles (8 km) south of the Strip on Las Vegas Boulevard. Boyd Gaming completed the project and opened its doors on December 22, 2005. Boyd Gaming operated the property for less than a year before selling it to former Coast CEO Michael Gaughan in 2006. (The property was rebranded to its current name, South Point, following the sale to Gaughan.)

In 2006, Boyd Gaming turned its focus to what would have been the largest project in its history: Echelon, a $4.8 billion resort complex at the site of the Stardust. In preparation for the project, Boyd Gaming swapped the Barbary Coast to Harrah's Entertainment in exchange for 24 acres near the Stardust, giving the company an 87-acre parcel on the north end of the Strip. The famed Stardust was closed on November 1, 2006, and imploded the night of March 13, 2007.

Construction on Echelon began on June 19, 2007, but was suspended a little over one year later, on August 1, 2008. At the time, Boyd Gaming officials cited "the difficult environment in today's capital markets, as well as weak economic conditions," and estimated construction would resume in three to four quarters.^[6] As the global recession deepened, the suspension continued; in October 2009, the company said it would likely be three to five years before development resumed.^[7]

List of properties[link]

[edit] Downtown Las Vegas casinos

• California Hotel and Casino
• Fremont Hotel and Casino
• Main Street Station

Other Las Vegas area casinos[link]

• Echelon Place (construction on hold)
• Eldorado Casino
• Gold Coast
• Jokers Wild Casino
• Orleans Hotel and Casino and Orleans Arena
• Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, Las Vegas
• Suncoast Hotel and Casino

Casinos in other states[link]

• Borgata, Atlantic City New Jersey (50% ownership through Marina District Development)
• Blue Chip Casino, Hotel and Spa, Michigan City, Indiana
• Delta Downs Racetrack Casino & Hotel, Vinton, Louisiana
• IP Casino Resort & Spa, Biloxi, Mississippi
• Par-A-Dice Hotel and Casino, East Peoria, Illinois
• Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, Shreveport, Louisiana
• Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, Tunica Resorts, Mississippi
• Treasure Chest Casino, Kenner, Louisiana

Non-casino properties[link]

• Dania Jai-Alai, Dania Beach, Florida^[8]
• Vacations-Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii

External links[link]

• Boyd Gaming Corporation

References[link]

• 2009 Annual Report for statistical data

Michele Boyd
Born	Michele Catherine Boyd Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Website
http://www.micheleboyd.com/

Michele Catherine Boyd (born in Gainesville, Florida) is an American actress best known for her recurring work as Riley on the web-series The Guild.

Personal background[link]

Boyd was born to a Navy family and thus spent much of her life traveling. She has one younger sister, Allyson Boyd. She was involved in plays and musicals from a very early age up through high school, performing in everything from The King and I to Cats. Boyd was a competitive swimmer since the age of 6, eventually competing in the California Interscholastic Federation Swimming and Diving events. Boyd also has worked as a snowboarding instructor at Snow Summit Resort at Big Bear Mountain and holds a green belt in hapkido.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior from the University of California, Davis.^[1] Before settling into her career as an actress, she did neuroscience research at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Health.^[1]

Career[link]

Boyd took up acting again while she was living on the East Coast after finishing college. She pursued modeling alongside an acting career, booking ads for Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard and many others. Several performances in short and independent films in New York City led to her moving to Los Angeles to more fully pursue a career in film and television.

She landed roles on shows such as Sons of Anarchy and The Young and the Restless, as well as using her science background to land a co-hosting job on the Discovery Channel show Machines of Malice as their neuroscience consultant. She played Jolene in the "Robots vs. Wrestlers" episode of How I Met Your Mother.^[2] She has most recently landed roles on the Nickelodeon shows iCarly and True Jackson, VP, as well as the ABC show FlashForward.

Boyd joined the cast of The Guild in the middle of Season 2 and remained an important supporting character in Season 3. The Guild won the Greenlight Award for Best Original Digital Series Production at the South by Southwest festivals,^[3] the YouTube Video Award for Best Series,^[4] the Yahoo! Video Award for Best Series,^[5] and 2009 Streamy Awards for Best Comedy Web Series and Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series.^[6]

In 2010, Boyd co-created and starred in the G33k & G4m3r Girls parody of Katy Perry's California Gurls video,^[7] a viral video which achieved one million views in its first week.^[8] They video was co-created with award-winning Saber^[9][10] creators Clare Grant and Rileah Vanderbilt, and Milynn Sarley under the group name Team Unicorn.^[11]

Filmography[link]

TV series/Internet productions[link]

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• Michele Boyd Online - official website and blog
• Michele Boyd at the Internet Movie Database
• Team Unicorn's YouTube page - The YouTube Channel of Team Unicorn
• Interview with Michele Boyd