Raising the Bar

William S. Boyd's Las Vegas Legacy

"The Boyd School of Law is a model of success, from inception to its current operation. We have frequently been ranked as one of the top 100 law schools. Three of our programs have made it into the top 25. We could not have achieved this without Bill Boyd's involvement..Bill Boyd is willing to do whatever we need him to do."-Dean Richard Morgan, UNLV School of Law

Family Roots in Gaming

As a young boy in the 1940s, William "Bill" Boyd's earliest exposure to gaming was selling newspapers to dealers in a downtown Las Vegas casino. For the ambitious youngster, selling ten papers a day was considered a big sale.

Boyd never dreamed 60 years later he would lead a national gaming company that employed 25,000 at 16 properties in six states. Nevertheless, Boyd Gaming has evolved from a modest, family-owned business to a publicly-traded conglomerate worth billions.

Company founder Sam Boyd moved his wife Mary and their ten-year-old son Bill to Las Vegas in 1941. Originally from Los Angeles, Sam had dealt cards on boats anchored just beyond the three-mile international limits. When the boats were moved four miles out, it exceeded the ability of the launches that brought the players. As a result, gaming on boats near Southern California came to a halt.

Las Vegas offered new opportunity because of the legalization of casinos only a few years earlier. As a result, the Boyd family arrived in the small railroad town. Sam soon found work at the El Rancho Casino where he earned $8 a day plus tips, all of it paid in silver dollars.

Boyd said, "There were 8,800 residents in the early 1940s, and we had one grammar school and one high school. Las Vegas had a western feel to it . my dad wore western attire to deal. Things changed when the Flamingo opened in 1946, altering the face of Las Vegas."

When the executives at the El Rancho purchased a financial interest in the Flamingo, they sent Sam to the new property. He soon became a pit boss.

Boyd remained in Nevada for college and earned a political science degree from the University of Nevada Reno in 1952. He immediately entered the University of Utah Law School, but was drafted to serve in Korea during his first year. After two years, Boyd returned to complete his law degree and graduated in 1957. Following law school, Boyd returned to Las Vegas, where he practiced general law for 15 years.

Boyd always regretted that Nevada did not have its own law school, and that he had to leave the state for legal training. He was accepted to both Utah and Georgetown in Washington D.C., but chose Utah. He claims it was partly because his maternal grandmother, Josephine Neuman, lived there. "I preferred the Utah campus to the urban Georgetown campus. Also, my grandmother cooked Saturday night dinner each week," he said.

In the meantime, Sam had risen to an executive level. When the Sahara opened in 1952, Sam borrowed $10,000 to invest a total of $16,000. He received a one percent ownership share. Its profitability prompted Sam to return downtown with partners to build The Mint. He became partner and general manager.

Further investments brought Bill Boyd into the business as a co-investor to his father's business ventures. During his legal career, Boyd's first gaming case involved the Eldorado in Henderson. The details soon required that he make a major life decision. He bought the Eldorado.

In 1973, Boyd changed career directions and joined his father in the newly formed Boyd Gaming. Together, they opened the California Hotel, which debuted downtown in January 1975.

To attract customers, Sam decided to create a tropical environment from his beloved Hawaii, a place he lived while working on gambling boats. He knew the Hawaiians loved to gamble, and sought to bring a bit of paradise to Las Vegas. By wearing tropical attire and serving tropical cuisine, Sam hoped they would come.

The experiment proved successful, and customers came not only to the California, but also to the larger group of properties in their portfolio. Even today, most of the California's clientele comes from Hawaii. Boyd said, "We run six charters a week from Honolulu, bringing in 110,000 customers each year to three of our downtown properties."

Sam Boyd died in early 1993, and Bill Boyd assumed the company's position as chair of the board and CEO. That same year, after 19 years as a family business, Boyd Gaming became a public company.

"We owned 52 percent of the company, and all the original California employees invested. I have always held a positive view of Las Vegas . it constantly reinvents itself. We believed in our company, so we wanted the capital to grow here and elsewhere," Boyd added.

Boyd Gaming has done quite well, surpassing all their wildest expectations. However, Boyd still acts like the man of former days when his company was smaller and more intimate. He still goes out to meet the people who work for him, even on holidays.

Boyd operates on the philosophy that he must give back to those communities that have been good to the company all these years. Beginning with Las Vegas, he is actively involved in helping children. His father founded the Boys and Girls' Clubs in Las Vegas and Henderson, and Bill recently donated $1 million to both the Las Vegas and Henderson organizations. Boyd Gaming also actively supports the United Way.

A Law School, a Legacy

Boyd's greatest community gift has been to offer a path for future legal minds. Remembering his disappointment at not being able to attend law school locally, Boyd enthusiastically spearheaded, along with others in the community, a proposal to fund a new Las Vegas facility.

Up until 1997, Nevada was one of two states-Alaska was the other-without a law school in its university system. Former attempts for an enduring law school had failed.

The process happened within a relatively short time. In the 1990s, state legislator Nick Horn lobbied in support of a law school. He became ill, and on his deathbed, Horn appealed to his friend Morse Arberry Jr. to continue his work. Arberry chaired the Nevada Assembly's Ways & Means committee, and secured $500,000 to plan a law school.

The team hired Carol Harter as president of the university, a position she held until this past summer. She reached out to Boyd and current Governor Kenny Guinn, who recognized that the success of this project required both a public and private funding campaign.

The coalition raised an initial $2 million, and Boyd contributed the final $5 million. They approached the legislature for approval in late 1997, and created the law school. Thanks to Boyd and his efforts to raise funds in the community, the William S. Boyd School of Law opened at UNLV in August 1998.

Richard Morgan was recruited as the first dean of the Law School, a position he still holds. Morgan, a former dean at the Arizona State University College of Law and the University of Wyoming College of Law, is happy with the enormous progress at the law school.

"The Boyd School of Law is a model of success, from its inception to its current operation. We have frequently been ranked as one of the top 100 law schools. Three of our programs have made it into the top 25. We could not have achieved this without Bill Boyd's involvement," Morgan said.

Morgan stated that Boyd donated another $25 million of his own money over the years, and has played an active role in recruiting faculty, attending accreditation hearings, and participating at graduations. He stated, "Bill Boyd is willing to do whatever we need him to do."

Boyd has eagerly thrown his energies into the growth of the law school. "Based on my own experiences, I always thought that Nevada should have its own law school. I am a great advocate for future generations of lawyers. Many of our students are atypical of other schools because they are usually older and have life experience. I insisted that we have a night school because so many of our good students work every day at their jobs."

Personal Time

Despite a hectic schedule that takes him to the company's many properties, Boyd makes time for his family, sports . Maui . which he visits several times a year, and Judy Vieths, the lady he refers to as his "better half and the love of his life." They have been together for almost 20 years.

Boyd has three children: two are executives within Boyd Gaming. His daughter, Vice Chair and Senior Vice President Marianne Boyd Johnson, joined the firm in 1977. Son William R. Boyd also came on board in 1977, and now serves as vice president. Son Sam Boyd works at Sam's Town, the namesake property of his grandfather. 

Under Bill Boyd's leadership, Boyd Gaming continues to grow, with plans for additional projects. "I am thrilled with how events have gone in our lives. It is a far cry from those days when we looked at making payroll two weeks down the road," he said.