Hilton Shifts Focus to Gaming Operations : Consolidation: The Beverly Hills-based hotel company will go from three divisions to two and pump $246 million into casinos.

In an effort to focus more attention on the fast-growing gaming business, Hilton Hotels Corp. approved a plan Thursday to consolidate its operations and pump $246 million into its lucrative Nevada hotel and casinos over the next two years.

The consolidation will result in cost savings of $6 million to $8 million annually and a “non-significant” number of layoffs, the company said.

The Beverly Hills-based hotelier will put its domestic and international gaming interests under one roof and its worldwide lodging operations under a second.

Analysts said the realignment will allow Hilton to focus more closely on gaming, a fast-growing industry that is rapidly expanding out of its traditional bases in Nevada and New Jersey.

“The gambling industry is lucrative, but it’s also very competitive,” said Saul Leonard, a hotel and gaming industry consultant in Los Angeles.

In recent years, gamblers have begun placing bets at casinos on American Indian reservations, riverboats on the Mississippi River and in gold-rush towns in Colorado and South Dakota. Hilton recently received permission to establish a riverboat casino in New Orleans and Kansas City, both of which are scheduled to open in 1994.

Caesars World, Circus Circus and Mirage Resorts are among the gaming industry giants that have announced ambitious expansion plans. On Wednesday, Circus Circus and the Eldorado announced plans to build a $230-million, 2,000-room hotel-casino with a 16th-Century Spanish seaport theme in Reno.

Leonard described Hilton’s consolidation as “a very good move.” Leonard said he is particularly impressed with Hilton’s plan to invest $246 million in its five big Nevada hotel-casino resorts. Although the company doesn’t break out revenue for its international resorts, Leonard said the Nevada hotel-casinos accounted for more than 60% of its total operating income last year.

Chairman Barron Hilton told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on Thursday that the firm also plans to expand its gaming operations in foreign countries.

He emphasized that the company is not abandoning the hotel business, but acknowledged that its lodging operations have been hurt by the recession and a surplus of rooms. He said he expects supply to drop back to its traditional levels in “two to three years.”