Winning pair
POSTED: Tuesday, November 11, 2008
We all know Hawaii residents LOVE Las Vegas. But did you know the extent of their role in the expansion of the gaudy desert landscape that is Sin City?
| ”;California Hotel and Casino: Hawai'i's Home Away from Home,”; by Dennis M. Ogawa and John M. Blink with Mike Gordon (Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, distributed by University of Hawai'i Press, $20) |
Because of the constant popularity of downtown's California Hotel and Casino, the Boyd Gaming Corp. built other properties in Vegas - places like Sam's Town, Suncoast, the Orleans and Gold Coast, the Fremont and Main Street Station - and plans the construction of the Echelon megaresort on the site of the former Stardust Hotel on the main strip.
Can all this growth really be attributed to the spending habits of island gamblers?
Meet the authors» Book release: 10:30 a.m. Thursday Coincides with an exhibit featuring artifacts, photographs and video about the California Hotel and the state's gambling history. (Exhibit runs through Jan. 23.)
» Place: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii
» Call: 945-7633
Book signings» Saturday: Noon to 1 p.m., Borders Windward Mall (235-8789); 4 to 5 p.m., Borders Ward Centre (591-8995)
» Sunday: 1 to 2 p.m., Borders Pearlridge (487-1818); 10:30 to noon, Don Quijote Pearl City (453-5500); 3 to 4:30 p.m., Don Quijote Waipahu (678-6800)
» Monday: 10 to 11:30 a.m., Don Quijote Kaheka (973-4800); 1 to 2:30 p.m. Don Quijote Kailua (266-4400)
» Next Tuesday: 10 a.m. to noon, Marukai Wholesale Mart (845-5051); 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Bestsellers, Bishop Street (528-2378)
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According to John Blink, founding executive at the California, the answer is a resounding yes.
While researching the soon-to-be-released oral history book “;California Hotel and Casino: Hawai'i's Home Away from Home,”; University of Hawaii American-studies professor Dennis Ogawa asked Blink for proof positive.
“;For Las Vegas, the gambling mecca of the world,”; Blink says in Ogawa's introduction to the book, “;Hawai'i gamblers ranked the highest on all essential business and financial criteria, applied by Las Vegas hotel casinos to define their best gamblers.”; According to Blink, on an average four-day visit to the California, Hawaii visitors spend $350 on the gaming tables - per day.
And take into consideration the “;local”; atmosphere transported to the middle of the desert. The good chance of running into friends and family at the California. Eating the same kind of local grinds one would find back home. And special promotions like free rooms and meals. Hoh, how can you lose, yeah?
The local folk even consider the hotel-casino's longtime service staff as part of their own extended ohana, bringing them local-kine omiyage, like pineapples, Maui onions and Kona coffee. (And what do Hawaii folk bring home? Plenty bags from the Beef Jerky Store downtown.)
While all this anecdotal evidence and talk-story is fun, and part and parcel of the book, Ogawa finds the real success story has crucial local roots.
It all started when founder Sam Boyd, as a young family man from Long Beach, Calif., was adopted into Hilo's community of issei and nisei while he worked for Hisakichi Hisanaga's business more than seven decades ago.
He would take that abiding sense of hard work and aloha to revitalize what was once a foundering business in a run-down area way off the Las Vegas Strip, turning it into a lucrative second “;home”; for Hawaii folk.
