Dress codes, time clocks, 8-hour workdays, overtime, vacation schedules, employee surveys, action plans… these were just some of the highlights of the new Boyd Gaming Policy Manual. Being a newly acquired company, Dania’s employees were expected to abide by these policies. While all this may seem logical for normal businesses today, realize that pari-mutuels (tracks […]
America’s first and only public jai-alai court is getting a makeover. After major expansion work in late 2021 that brought the cancha close to regulation amateur sizing for international tournament play, a couple of wrinkles needed to be addressed. The overhead protection screen, designed to protect wild throws from going into a soccer practice court […]
Wall Street Tumbles, Boyd Stock Craters “Panic on Wall Street” April 2, 2007: New Century, an American real estate investment trust specializing in subprime lending and securitization, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. I saw the crawl at the bottom of the television screen as I watched CNBC. I had never heard of New Century, nor did I pay much attention. All […]
Plans were to tear down building and build and new fronton/casino Boyd Gaming was founded by Sam Boyd. He was a gambler. His early investments paid off and began a small casino empire. His heirs were expanding that empire and gambled on a Florida property, Dania Jai-Alai. Now, it was apparent that Boyd had miscalculated […]
A spaceship travels from a planet. In one of its stopovers, an astronaut joins as a crew member to continue this journey whose destiny is to colonize and implement a lifestyle on another planet.His case is peculiar. He worked for nearly 20 years at the World Jai-Alai in management positions. After a lapse of 5 […]
It was quite a week for America’s first and only public Jai-alai cancha in the United States. Last Saturday, former French star “Danny” brought along his buddy Jean “Olharan” for a visit to the Museum and then an appearance at the St. Petersburg court. Danny was a catching machine and played in various frontons including […]
By Straymar Magic City Fronton in Miami debuts its 6th Season of pari-mutuel games (called pelota games) on Monday, February 13th at 1:30-pm. According to Stu Neiman, there will be no changes to the Pelota format for 2023. Thus, there will continue to be 8-games with the Spec 7 format (games to 7-points) and no changes […]
After the Boyd executives departed, we all had so many questions. At the meeting of both the staff and employees, they gave some very “boilerplate” answers. Employee: “Do we still have jobs?” Boyd Exec: “At this time, it is business as usual. You all have jobs.” Employee: “Do you plan on keeping the Jai-Alai operation […]
Following a two-month delay, West Flagler Associates (owners of Magic City Casino) has gained “conditional approval” of the sale their casino in what is being considering the biggest casino deal in the state of Florida’s history. The sale, estimated to be around $600 million dollars in cash*, would turn over operations to PCI Gaming, which […]
Here is some brief video from the Cancun tournament that was just held the first weekend in February. Photo and video by Arturo Salas. More images and details to come. I was fully booked to attend and play in the event, but a death of a close friend caused a late change in plans, thus […]
