Mass. Casinos Generate $81 Million in July
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, AUG. 15, 2019.....The three casinos in Massachusetts cumulatively generated $81.4 million in revenue last month from hundreds of millions in wagers and Encore Boston Harbor in Everett accounted for about 60 percent of it.
In its first full month of operations, the Wynn Resorts property pulled in more than $48.57 million in table game and slot machine revenue. MGM Springfield posted its third-worst month in July but still counted $20.4 million in revenue and the slots parlor at Plainridge Park Casino generated $12.5 million last month, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission reported in its monthly revenue roundup.
Table game revenue accounted for more than half of Encore's July haul, totaling $27.42 million while slots brought in another $21.15 million last month. Gamblers put more than $262.4 million into the 3,158 slot machines at Encore and the house kept about 8.06 percent of it.
At MGM Springfield, which opened last August, gaming revenue rose slightly from June to $20.4 million in July. Last month was only the third time since it opened that the casino's monthly revenue has dipped below $21.2 million. Slot machines were the driver of MGM's revenue in July, accounting for more than three-quarters of the casino's take. Gamblers got back about 91.17 percent of the $175.63 million wagered on the Springfield slots.
At the slots-only facility in Plainville, gaming revenue dropped to its lowest point since January at $12.5 million. Plainridge Park Casino had the most generous payout on its slots -- 92.08 percent -- last month.
Between the three casinos, gamblers in Massachusetts last month wagered just shy of $600 million on slot machines alone. Because the amount of money wagered on table games is not tracked the same way money wagered on slot machines is, an estimate of the total state casino wager for the month is impractical.
State government can expect to collect about $12.14 million in taxes from Encore Boston Harbor and another $5.1 in taxes from MGM Springfield. Combined, the two full-scale casinos generated about $17.24 million in tax revenue for the state last month. The two full-scale casinos in Massachusetts -- MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor -- are taxed at a rate of 25 percent of their gross gaming revenue.
The state is also entitled to more than $5 million of Plainridge's July revenue in the form of taxes intended for local aid and another $1.13 million for the Race Horse Development Fund. That works out to a total tax or assessment hit of almost $6.14 million last month, according to the Gaming Commission.
Plainridge is taxed on 49 percent of its gross gaming revenue, with 82 percent of the levy going to local aid and 18 percent to a fund set up with the goal of supporting horse racing, an industry that is struggling in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts, in its first full month having two full-scale casinos and a racino in operation, took in about $23.4 million tax revenue and has collected a cumulative $410 million in taxes and assessments from the three gaming facilities that have opened under the 2011 expanded gaming law, the Gaming Commission said.