Boyd Gaming is getting closer to a combined slot account for all of its properties in Las Vegas - Club Coast now includes Sam's Town, as well as the Orleans, Gold Coast and SunCoast. Six other Boyd casinos will be added to Club Coast in the future.

There will be three tiers of Club Coast cards in the new setup: Ruby is the basic tier where you get 1 pt/$1 coin-in*. 20,000 points within 90 days moves you to Sapphire for 6 months, and you would get double points. 125,000 points within 90 days would qualify for Emerald status for 6 months,and you get triple points. That * means the 1 pt/$1 "may vary depending on model of gaming device" according to the website, and there was no info about table games other than to check at the Club Coast booth.

They have done a lot of local advertisement on the new slot club with billboards, full page ads, mailers, marquees, etc. None of it had as much details as you included.

I'm on the fence if it's a good thing for me or a bad thing??? Just like Harrahs properties when they combined. I guess on one hand it will be nice for all my play to count toward free stuff. On the other, I worry that for free rooms, the lower players will fill up the downtown properties, and I'll be forced to stay eleswhere.

I don't like the mergers and parent company management of the hotels. I like when they have to compete for my dollar.

An interesting work in progress is the new online information on Club Coast. It is called B-Connected. You can find a link on The Orleans website or it has it's own website.

Not all features are up an running at the moment. You can find out more details on the new club and the various layers. It also has a machine search, where you can pick your favorite machine, favorite demonination, and it will tell you the casinos that have the machine and pull up a map and tell you where those machines are. It's not completely functional at this point. It is a lot of fun to play with.

There is also a log in and sign up feature that isn't up and running yet. And they say 9 more casinos to be added soon.

It seems the the casino websites are undergoing changes too. The Orleans has changed alot, The Suncoast has not.

When properties merge and combine it's never a good thing. The comps just seem to go downhill