The first casino to go on line in the Bay State reported slightly higher revenues as it completed its second year in operation.
Plainridge Park in Plainville brought in about $157 million in gross revenues since June 2016. That compared to $154 million in the first year of operation, according to the Associated Press, which reviewed the state’s data.
The casino, operated by Penn National Gaming, is making a play for the millennials by hosting rock concerts, boxing matches and other live events. The park has also “loosened” its slots, keeping 8 percent of all bets, as opposed to 10 percent when it first opened. Sometimes, during promotions, the percentage is dropped to 7 percent.
This compares to the industry outside of Nevada, which ranges from 7-11 percent, according to Clyde Barrow of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas, who is an expert in New England gaming. “Plainridge is having to return more money to its customers to keep them coming back,” he told the AP.
The profits beat expectations of some experts. David Gulley, an economics professor at Bentley University, Massachusetts told the AP: “It’s always hard for a new gaming facility to live up to expectations and to maintain the initial excitement that surrounds the grand opening.”
The profits fall considerably short of the $300 million per year that was projected when the park opened two years ago. It has 1,250 slots, which, according to Penn, consistently bring in more than the industry standard of $300 per machine per day.
The state collects 49 percent of that, which has totaled about $152 million so far.
Plainridge Park is nearing the end of its monopoly, however, since the MGM Springfield is due to open in little more than a year and the Wynn Boston Harbor will follow two years from now.
Massachusetts Gaming Commission
Last week the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted to allow Bristol Community College to offer courses training potential casino workers. The commission voted to award a certificate for gaming management program that would be taught in Fall River and Taunton. The certification was required since it will apply for gaming tables such as blackjack and craps.
The program previously won the approval of the state Board of Higher Education.
Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said, “Preparing a local workforce to meet the demand of casino hiring is central to maximizing economic opportunity and job creation in the Commonwealth.” He added, “It is exciting to note this milestone as we strive to achieve the gaming law’s intent of establishing a highly-skilled and diverse workforce for the state’s emergent gaming industry.”
In an article that appeared in Online Gambling last week the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) project was recognized for special praise as a groundbreaking attempt to accurately collect data related to the effects of gaming on society as a whole. The article also cited a similar program currently being conducted in New Jersey.
SEIGMA was mandated by the 2011 gaming expansion act and the commission hired the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences to oversee the research, which not only is taking snapshots in time, but will continue to do research into the future. It is looking at communities near casinos before the casino arrived to create a baseline. Now that casinos are starting to open, it will compare data from that baseline.
Researchers are studying crime rates, home values, bankruptcies, traffic and even how many tickets are being given out for moving violations.
The commission received the second of such annual reports last week, and concluded that gaming so far hasn’t caused a significant spike in crime.
