Still looking like an architect's concept, the South Coast was built along classical lines four miles south of the Strip intersection of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard.

While this project was under construction, the Coast Casino group was taken over by Boyd Gaming, owner of the California, Las Vegas Club and Sam's Town, among others. Jackie Gaughan was kept on to run the Coast division at Boyd. But by 2006 the South Coast was reporting slow revenues and in July Boyd announced that their earnings were down 80%. They sold the South Coast to Jackie Gaughan in a mostly cash transaction which also eliminated one high-cost executive position. Mr. Gaughan quickly renamed the South Coast to "South Point".

Boyd recently sold off another piece of the Coast empire, the venerable Barbary Coast, to Harrah's. And Harrah's itself is being taken over.

Life in the big leagues.