Boyd Gaming was in the news this week, twice. In one instance, Boyd opened a new property in Norfolk, Virginia. The Interim Gambling Hall, a classic Boyd name, brings the total number of casinos in Virginia to four, though that’s a slightly misleading number, as there are also eight Rosie’s with 4,800 historic racing machines in the state. Different agencies report each and neither refers to the other. It is rather like the Old Dominion had a split personality. In any case, Boyd is entering a very healthy and growing market. For the first nine months of 2025, Virginia has generated $1.227 billion in GGR from those 12 operations and the revenue has grown significantly year over year for the last three years.
In the other news item, Boyd closed a property in Tunica, Mississippi. That leaves five casinos in Tunica. The Tunica market is heading in the exact opposite direction as Virginia. Tunica has been on a long downward slide. It is down 18 percent from 1995, the year after Boyd’s Sam’s Town opened. The market peaked in 2006 and it is down a little more than 50 percent from that year. Except for the two years immediately after COVID, Tunica has declined every year since 2006. It is easy to see why Boyd wanted to abandon ship, or in this case abandon boat; officially, Sam’s Town was a riverboat.
Sam’s Town is a true Boyd name. The property was named after the first Sam’s Town, which opened in Las Vegas in 1979. That Sam’s Town was named after the founder of company, Sam Boyd. The Las Vegas Sam’s Town was the beginning of a strategy that has continued to this day, catering to local residents. Boyd seizes an opportunity when it sees one. In 1979, that meant the newly emerging locals casino market. The success of that first move led to others. Now, Boyd operates 28 properties in 10 states. The corporation has stayed close to its roots, catering to people who live within a few miles of the casino.
That strategy worked well even in Tunica, until the region was swamped with casinos. The newer and more modern casinos left the old riverboat casinos behind. Boyd did what others have done before in Mississippi: lock the doors and move away. There are no buyers. Over the next decade or so, the situation in Tunica is going to become more and more typical. Casino gaming has spread to every corner of the country; including both commercial and Indian casinos, there are about 1,500 casinos in the U.S. In 1994, the number was probably less than 50.
Virginia is on the other side of the divide. Its casinos are new and serving areas that were underserved before. But Virginia does illustrate the complexity of the problem with its split personality. The state treats historic racing machines and casinos if they were completely different and unrelated. While an argument might be made to support that theory, the customers are not different and more significantly, the money the customers spend on one is not available for the other. And as the 46-year history of Boyd has proven, the closer you are to your customer, the closer your customer is to you. It is early in the game in Virginia, but one could predict in 30 or 40 years, at least one of Virginia’s casinos might pack up and look for a new home.
The national gaming landscape is becoming saturated. Boyd is as prepared as any company to deal with that level of competition. But sometimes, there is nothing to be done. Tunica is simply no longer a viable market. That is especially true for a company that is required by Wall Street to report increasing revenues every quarter. Virginia is viable; Caesars, Hard Rock, Rivers, and Churchill Downs are already plying their trade in the state. When Virginia ceases to be viable, Boyd has proven it is flexible and can adapt. That is what it takes in the ever-changing dance of casino gaming — flexibility and the willingness to move into a new environment.
In the meantime, there is plenty of hay to be made in the sunshine in the Old Dominion.
