CARSON CITY -- Ownership of the Barbary Coast would be transferred from Boyd Gaming Corp. to Harrah's Entertainment and the business would become known as Bill's Gamblin Hall and Saloon under a plan approved Wednesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

Board members voted 3-0 to back a proposal under which Harrah's would swap 24 acres it owns next to the closed Stardust for the 4.3-acre Boyd Gaming site that holds the Barbary Coast on the Strip at Flamingo Road.

The trade would give Harrah's ownership over a contiguous two-block area along the Strip, while Boyd Gaming would have 87 acres of Strip property.

The property Boyd would gain in the swap includes the site of the now-demolished Westward Ho. This land would be blended in its planned $4 billion Echelon project. The Stardust will be imploded next month to make way for the hotel.

The deal still needs approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission, which will consider it at the commission's Feb. 22 meeting in Carson City.

Dennis Gallagher, a Harrah's executive, said the companies plan to formally trade properties on Feb. 27. The Barbary Coast will be closed for two to 2 1/2 days and then reopen as Bill's in honor of Harrah's founder Bill Harrah.

A small Bill's casino already exists next to Harrah's Lake Tahoe.

"It will be business as usual," Gallagher said, adding that almost all Barbary Coast employees will be retained at "substantially similar salaries."

He said there has been "much speculation" as to what Harrah's eventually will do with the Barbary Coast, but that no decision has been made.

The Barbary Coast was built in 1979 by longtime gaming executive Jackie Gaughan and his son, Michael.

In other matters Wednesday, the Gaming Control Board:

*Recommended issuing temporary licenses to Ray Neilsen and Gordon Kanofsky, personal representatives of the estate of the late Craig Hart Neilsen. He owned 55.8 percent of the shares of Ameristar Casinos.

Under terms of the will, Neilsen's shares in the company in eight or nine years will be transferred to his private foundation.

Ray Neilsen is his Craig Neilsen's son. Kanofsky is a longtime officer of the company, which owns seven casinos, including Cactus Pete's and the Horseshu in Jackpot. Craig Neilsen died in Las Vegas in November.

The company intends to grow, Ray Neilsen said.

*Recommended the suitability of US OFF-TRACK LLC as operator of a call center. Horse bettors with pre-arranged accounts can call the company and place bets at race books represented by US OFF-TRACK. Control board members were told the company doubled bets placed at race books in Oregon.

"It is something new and something we will believe will work" in attracting more wagering on horses, control board Chairman Dennis Neilander said.

The meeting was the first in which new member Randy Sayre participated. Sayre, 54, did not participate in the control board's January meeting in Las Vegas because of a dispute over who held the position.

Keith Munro, the chief of staff to former Gov. Kenny Guinn, had been appointed to the post last year by Guinn. Sayre, the chief of the board's investigations division and a 25-year control board employee, was appointed to the post Jan. 4 by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Gibbons at the time said he, not Guinn, had the authority to name the control board member. Munro resigned Jan. 11 to end the dispute.