Boomtown hits it big with concealed weapons classes

In the never-ending search for good casino customers, Kevin McNair thinks he's found a terrific niche people who want permits to carry concealed weapons.

Boomtown Casino and Hotel, where McNair works as senior director of marketing, is consistently selling out two-day packages that provide the classroom and gun-range experience that gun owners need to apply for concealed-carry weapon certification.

Figuring that he's attracting about 60 people for each of the monthly sessions 30 folks taking the class, another 30 spouses accompanying them McNair says the numbers are a good little addition to business at the west-Reno hotel and casino.

But better yet, he says, the classroom participants reflect an attractive demographic to whom Boomtown can pitch future offers.

The concealed-carry classes, McNair says, draw many professionals, mostly responsible folks with good discretionary incomes.

"It's a nice group of people," he says.

Participants most them coming from northern California or northern Nevada pay $199 for two nights at Boomtown, their instruction and the paperwork to file a license application.

For another $75, they get Utah mail-in certification certification which covers an additional 30 states.

Instructor Greg Rentchler, a former criminal investigator and securities manager in Los Angeles who has taught concealed-carry classes for 12 years, spends six hours with students in the classroom.

The classwork, McNair says, is dominated by safety instruction.

Participants then spend a couple of hours on a shooting range.

They can't bring their weapons into Boomtown.

McNair, a hunter and shooter, started thinking about the potential of the class while taking the instruction himself.

He introduced the concealed-carry promotion while he was a marketing executive at AVI Resort and Casino at Laughlin, bringing the idea with him when he moved to Boomtown this spring.

He believes the Reno property is the only one in the state offering a similar program.

McNair suspects a promotion that draws 30 participants a month may just scrape the surface.

"The market is untapped," he says.

"It's much bigger than anyone thought."