On the second floor we had a Western dance hall,” Boyd says. We had an upscale restaurant called Diamond Lil’s. The goal was to offer entertainment amenities that would make Sam’s Town more than just a gambling hall but also a destination casino. Sam’s Town wasn’t the first locals casino, but “it was, really, one of the first full-scale, what we called local properties” and helped to start a trend.

“It appeared in the paper we were building at that address, and my dad and I started to get calls from friends and contemporaries saying, ‘You guys are so out of it … What are you doing, going out to the middle of nowhere where you’re going to go broke?’ ”īoyd says Sam’s Town was packed on opening day - April 1, 1979. “We were sure that about 90 percent of people who lived on the East side … went downtown for their entertainment, and we said, ‘Why would they go downtown if we put a nice place closer to them so they didn’t have to drive as far?’ ” When Boyd pitched the idea to his father, Sam liked it, too. I just got a listing this morning on 13 acres right on the corner of Nellis Boulevard and Boulder Highway. Why don’t we do something to develop it? Build a hotel or something?’ “I called my partner who was in the real estate business and said, ‘I’m passing our property, our five acres out here, and we only have one payment left on that and we’re going to own it. Earlier, while driving along Boulder Highway one night, Bill Boyd passed property that he and partners owned. And although the area around it has developed enough over the years to earn the unofficial moniker “Boulder Strip,” its roots lie in what four decades ago was open desert.īill Boyd, son of gaming icon Sam Boyd and executive chairman of Boyd Gaming Corp., notes that in 1979, the Boyd family had ownership in the California Hotel in Las Vegas and the Eldorado in Henderson. Sam’s Town celebrates its 40th anniversary Monday, with a cake-and-champagne party at 2 p.m. Over the past four decades, Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall has been all of those and more. Locals-oriented casinos around Las Vegas can be more than just places to gamble - for many, in fact, they become like community centers, neighborhood bars, diners or even secular worship spaces. For Audrey Bucci, it was where a moving memorial service for her husband was held. For Ginger Glass-Trotter, it’s the place where she sang professionally and then, as a cocktail server, met customers whom she now considers friends. Sam's Town Roy Rogers, Dale Evans with Sam Boyd Credit: Las Vegas News Bureauįor Jon Avery, Sam’s Town was the setting for a memorable retirement party.

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