Gaming revenues off In January, but state closing in on $1B

Sentinel & Enterprise
 
Gaming revenues off In January, but state closing in on $1B
Wild Casino

Revenue was down across the board last month but Massachusetts’ three gambling centers still generated roughly $82 million from gaming, with nearly $23 million due as the state’s monthly take.

The Mass. Gaming Commission reported Tuesday that Plainridge Park Casino, MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor together generated $82.4 million in gross gaming revenue in January, down from about $100 million of gaming revenue in December but still almost $25 million more than what the casinos and slots parlor generated in January 2021.

January was the worst revenue month for Encore Boston Harbor since last June.

The Everett casino generated just less than $54 million in gaming revenue — $27.87 million from its slot machines and another $26.08 million from its table games. Though Encore’s January haul was down about 13% from the previous month, it represented a 62% increase over the previous January.

The $18.6 million of gross gaming revenue that MGM Springfield generated last month marked the casino’s worst showing since February 2021 and was down more than 16% from December. MGM’s January 2022 performance beat January 2021 revenues by more than 28%.

Encore and MGM are each taxed at a rate of 25% of gross gaming revenue. That worked out to about $13.5 million from Encore and $4.65 million from MGM last month.

For the Plainville slots parlor, January’s $9.84 million in gaming revenue was the lowest monthly total since February 2021. Plainridge Park pays a 49% tax on its gross gaming revenue, which in January worked out to about $4.8 million for the state.

Massachusetts is close to surpassing $1 billion in historic casino gaming revenue for the state. With January’s roughly $24 million included, Massachusetts has collected about $994 million in taxes and assessments since legal casino-style gambling began here in June 2015.