Boyd plans isle promotions

From staff and wire reports

Hawaii-connected hotel and casino operator Boyd Gaming Corp. expects to launch some new promotions to boost Hawaii business in its downtown Las Vegas properties.

Boyd told the Las Vegas gaming commission it is also working up promotions to attract more Las Vegas residents and tourists from other areas to the downtown area.

Financial results at its Main Street Station casino, which opened last November, have not been up to the company's expectations because of very competitive market conditions, Ellis Landau, chief financial officer, told the commission late last week.

The company's Las Vegas casino-hotels, which include the Stardust on the Strip and the California, the Fremont and Main Street Station downtown, are popular with Hawaii residents and Boyd owns two Hawaii agencies that book travel to Las Vegas, Jackie's Travel and Vacations Hawaii.

The company's founder, Sam Boyd, was a Big Island resident in the 1930s.

Boyd recently reported a 19.7 percent increase in the net for its fourth quarter ending June 30, but said that was due mostly to expansion in Illinois and Mississippi.

In the quarterly report, Boyd called the Stardust its weak point and said it was affected by an added supply of competing hotel rooms in Las Vegas. The company said a month ago it expected the supply-demand ratio to improve as the market absorbed the competing rooms.

Hotel room occupancy now is strong, Landau told the gaming commission last week, but he said Boyd's gaming volume in Las Vegas is down because of increased competition.

Developing the Stardust's 61-acre site on the Las Vegas Strip into a "very attractive" resort may help offset the loss of business to competitors, Landau told the Las Vegas gaming body's meeting late last week.

Recent earnings have been boosted by its newer properties, the Par-A-Dice Casino in Peoria, Ill. and Sam's Town in Tunica, Miss., and its management of the Silver Star casino in Mississippi.