The Wynn Boston Harbor’s expected cost has now risen to .4 billion, 0 million than Wynn estimated last August.
Wynn announced the expected price tag for the Everett, Massachusetts in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The casino is expected to open in mid-2019.
The rise is attributed to increased cost of materials and labor, in part due to a construction boom in Boston. Greg John, a spokesman for Wynn, said the company doesn’t plan to cut back on amenities.
Wynn will be hosting two Massachusetts Girls in Trades Conference and Career Fairs, one in Holyoke and the other in Dorchester, both this spring. The purpose of the fairs will be to encourage young women in high school to look at high wage careers.
In a statement Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Boston Harbor, said “Wynn Boston Harbor wants to be a leader in promoting women to the many high-paying, high-skill jobs in the construction trades. We will have 4,000 union construction workers on our project and we hope that many will be women beginning careers in construction.”
Plainridge Park Casino
The opening of Plainridge Park Casino, so far the Bay State’s only casino, in Plainville, did not harm state lottery sales, a report by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst determined. The casino opened in June 2015.
“An analysis of lottery revenues one year after the opening of Plainridge Park Casino shows that, on average, lottery revenues have not decreased statewide or nearer the casino, whether this includes designated surrounding communities or agents within various driving distances,” said the report.
The report did say that lottery sales revenues grew more slowly nearer to the casino than in other parts of the state. The casino includes some Lottery machines.
Casino opponents have consistently predicted that the four casinos ultimately envisioned by the gaming expansion law of 2011 would impact the Lottery—and not for the better. The Lottery is a hot button issue in the Bay State since municipalities collect a large share of its revenues. Lottery sales were $5 billion in 2015, of which $945.8 million went to cities and towns.
Since correlation is not causality, the study noted “Whether the casino had differential impacts on communities or is the source of variation in lottery revenue cannot be definitively determined as variation in lottery revenue may stem from other factors.” It also warned that it was difficult to form concrete conclusions from one year of data.
