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Boyd Gaming Corporationīy listening to people’s desires, Boyd’s team began creating efficient systems to attract customers. Sam Boyd center, wearing a hat, on the casino floor of the California Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

They quickly learned the practice of omiyage, or Japanese gift-giving culture, and would bring California Hotel matchbooks to their meetings and, sometimes, cases of Coors beer - a rarity on the islands at the time. You’re going to have better memories of a place where you just had fun than if you’d lost everything, and the Cal recognized that in the Hawaii gambler.”īoyd and his team began making frequent flights to Hawaii, building relationships with various airlines and local hotels. “The Hawaii gambler is all about fun, and they know when to walk. Dennis Ogawa, co-author of “California Hotel and Casino: Hawai’i's Home Away From Home” and a professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. “They weren’t gambling away their houses or family inheritance,” said Dr. Boyd wanted to change that and bring Hawaii’s gamblers to the Cal. But after a rough first year that saw little business, Boyd turned his attention to a different audience - one from whom he first learned about gambling as a business: the people of Hawaii.Īt the time the Cal was built, Hawaii residents were flying to Reno to gamble (to this day, Hawaii and Utah are the only states in the country where gambling is illegal) because it was cheaper to fly to Reno than Vegas. Samuel “Sam” Boyd, a casino developer and manager, opened the California Hotel and Casino in 1975 with the intention of attracting Southern California visitors. It’s home.” Samuel 'Sam' Boyd outside of the California Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. “At the Cal, everyone looks like your neighbor, walking around in slippers. Shobu, 66, is among the 1 in 10 Hawaii residents who visit Las Vegas every year, and is also among the Japanese American visitors who find themselves at the Cal, a hotel with restaurants and service designed to make Hawaii visitors feel at home. When her husband suggested a trip to Japan one year, she recalled shaking her head and saying, “I don’t want to go to Japan.

Even after her husband stopped wanting to go to the Cal, she went on solo trips, when she’d spend four days gambling on the casino floor, sometimes up to 10 hours a day. That first trip was with her husband, and Shobu estimates that she’s stayed at the Cal up to six times a year for the past 25 years.

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