The real deal: Poker’s returning to Massachusetts casino
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Almost five months since the majority of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s pandemic-era restrictions were removed from the state’s two casinos and slots parlor, things are finally returning to normal.
That’s due to the impending resumption of a popular card game and ongoing hiring efforts.
According to gaming regulators, most of the action in recent weeks has occurred at MGM Springfield. The casino held a large hiring open house a few weeks ago, resulting in 60 job offers, disclosed Loretta Lillios, director of the Gaming Commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau.
In the weeks after lifting most of those COVID-19 constraints, the state’s casinos reported that lack of staff had kept some aspects of the gambling world from resuming prepandemic activity.
Lillios said last week that the IEB is now “seeing a steady group of hires amongst all three (licensees) coming through the licensing and then the background reviews.”
Plainville’s Plainridge Park slots parlor has been “actively recruiting and hiring,” Lillios said.
The hiring uptick has apparently allowed the Springfield casino to resume offering poker.
It’s hired a poker manager and added poker dealers as it prepares to reopen its card room on Oct. 29 for the first time since March 2020, informed Bruce Band, the assistant director of the IEB. “That’s been a subject since probably last March with us, so that will be good to see,” he said.
Players can expect about 10 to 12 tables instead of the 28 that used to occupy the Springfield casino’s poker room.
Poker was one of the games prohibited when the commission first allowed Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield to reopen in July 2020.
The commission dropped that ban at the end of May 2021, but neither Encore nor MGM Springfield initially committed to bringing back poker, with one explanation made at the time being that poker was a low-profit-per-square-foot game, which was making the casinos hesitant to bring it back.
And when the commission convened a meeting with casino and slots parlor operators to discuss the matter, gaming executives told regulators they were having a hard time filling some positions, especially food and beverage openings.
We understand why such a labor-intensive industry experienced problems finding workers, especially when state and federal unemployment stipends offered ample inducement to stay home.
In July, Band reported that complaints about the absence of legal poker in Massachusetts had “increased tenfold in the last two weeks.”
Encore Boston Harbor indicated it would make a decision about bringing back poker by the end of this year, though it warned that doing so would likely mean the closure of some other table games at the Everett casino.
On the COVID-19 front, since Sept. 13, MGM Springfield has been enforcing a local indoor mask mandate. Lillios said there have been no significant issues related to masking; compliance has been good from both employees and gamblers.
The two resort casinos no doubt will welcome the extra revenue poker will provide.
After a July surge, gross revenue from the three Massachusetts gaming outlets fell slightly in August, to $92.5 million.
Both the Encore Boston Harbor and the Plainridge Park were within $1 million of their July totals, while MGM Springfield’s revenue fell by $1.9 million.
Encore Boston Harbor generated the biggest take, bringing in $57.9 million in gross gaming receipts in August. Then came MGM Springfield, which took in $21.9 million, followed by Plainridge Park, which grossed $12.7 million.
Still, July and August represent the only two months this year that gross revenue surpassed $90 million, with July seeing a peak of $96 million.
