Boyd Gaming Corporation

Sam Boyd landed his first major position in the gambling industry when he became the manager of the Mint Las Vegas in the 1940s. He later partnered with his son Bill, to acquire the Eldorado casino in Henderson, Nevada in 1962; he later sold the Mint Las Vegas in 1968.

The Boyd family had deep roots in Las Vegas, but only established themselves officially in 1975 when they founded the Boyd Gaming Corporation, which was formed to develop and operate the California Hotel and Casino. The company began life with 75 investors.

They embarked on expanding Boyd Gaming in 1979 when they opened Sam’s Town Las Vegas at Nellis Boulevard, which is considered one of the first ‘local’ properties opened in the Las Vegas Valley.

The Boyd family attained a reputation for running a squeaky-clean, ‘tight’ ship, which led to Nevada regulators turning to them for help in the 80s amidst allegations of widespread skimming operations. These operations were purported to be part of a wider organized crime racket in Sin City.

Stardust, one of the companies alleged to have been skimming, was fined by the Nevada Gaming Commission. After this, the Boyd Gaming Corporation was asked to run the company’s operations and was surprised by the huge profits they began to reap.

Sam Boyd died in 1993, and Bill succeeded him as the CEO of Boyd Gaming. In the same year, Boyd Gaming held its first public offering of stock and funds from the IPO allowing for a period of aggressive expansion in the 90s and 2000s.

They acquired a wealth of properties and assets including Pearl River Resort in Mississippi, Treasure Chest in Louisiana and Par-A-Dice in Illinois, to name a few. Their most ambitious project came in 2003 when they opened the world-famous Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City.

The Borgata remains by far Boyd's largest and most profitable property accounting for over a third of the company’s total profits. They operate 28 gaming properties in ten states across the US and generated $3.4bn in 2021, exceeding pre-pandemic numbers after hitting a slump in 2020.

Number of employees: 15,114

Key Personnel:
Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer: Matthew Ryan
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary: Uri Clinton
Senior VP & Chief Information Officer: Blake Rampmaier