Researchers studying the habits of patrons of Massachusetts casinos are using a poll of 3,000 state residents over time. The study has cost $3 million so far and expects to collect information where no gaming survey has gone before.
Stephen Crosby, chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which is funding the survey, brags that it is the only such study to collect data before the casinos open their doors, so that those data can be compared to data collected after casinos are operating.
The study, Massachusetts Gambling Impact Cohort Study – or MAGIC, is being conducted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It started with nearly 5,000 and winnowed them into a “cohort of 3,139 people who researchers will contact regularly. This will allow researchers to follow trends and develop anecdotal narratives as well. The study will create a “fine grained” picture.
The first of four planned casinos, Plainridge Park, opened in 2015. Data collection started and was mainly completed before it opened. The second casino, the MGM Springfield, will open this fall. The third, the Wynn Boston Harbor, will follow in about a year. The first results were presented to the commission last week.
Crosby is comparing the importance of this study to that of the Framingham Heart Study, which was started about 70 years ago. The study could go on for as long as a decade and the cohort will get smaller as people presumably die or move.
Crosby said approvingly, “For the first time, we have a baseline for everything.”
MGM Springfield
Meanwhile the $960 million MGM Springfield has begun moving into its permanent corporate offices—with a scheduled opening of September of this year. The 11-story building is the MassMutual building on State Street. Initially 50 employees moved in with 300 expected eventually. The building, which has been renovated, was originally built in 1929. The renovation preserved its Classical Revival facade and kept some of the original lobby.
The casino resort will employ about 3,000 spreading over three blocks in Springfield’s South End. MGM has committed to taking 35 percent of its employees from the city and 90 percent from the city and surrounding region.
Besides a casino with 125,000 square feet of gaming space, it will also have a 250-room hotel, a cinema, bowling alley, skating rink and outdoor market.
