Revenue at Massachusetts Casinos Holds Steady in September

The three commercial casinos in Massachusetts had virtually identical handle and revenue figures in September as they did in August as the facilities continue to recover from coronavirus-related shutdowns.

Combined handle (or coin in) at the three Massachusetts casinos was $604,814,996, down 0.9% compared to August’s total of $610,097,498.

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The Encore Boston Harbor Casino in Everett had handle of $303,685,463 in September, compared to $305,242,644 in August. MGM Springfield was up a bit more than $100,000, from $170,888,362 in August to $170,996,115 in September; Plainridge Park in Plainville went down to $130,133,417 from $133,966,402.

It was the same story for Gross Gaming Revenue, as reported on Thursday by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. The combined total revenue for September was $70,541,635, a drop of 0.7% from $71,022,259 in August.

Total GGR (slots and table games combined) Encore Boston Harbor rose slightly, from $42,390,349 in August to $42,974,804 in September. The other two casinos had slight drops: Revenue at MGM Springfield fell from $18,462,944 in August to $17,618,738 in September and Plainridge Park, which only has slots, declined from $10,168,966 to $9,948,093.

Pandemic’s Lasting Damage Lingers

The state’s casinos are still operating at reduced capacity, adhering to social distancing measures. They were closed for about four months in the immediate wake of the coronavirus pandemic that shut down casinos across the nation.

So it’s not surprising that the casinos in Massachusetts are not quite back up to pre-pandemic levels, but they are not that far off the pace either.

Encore Boston Harbor’s peak for handle was $359.2 million in August 2019, just a few months after it opened. Its top GGR was $54 million in December. At MGM Springfield, the record monthly handle since opening in August 2018 was $203 million in March 2019, so the fact that the handle for the past two months came within $30 million of that should be encouraging for the company. Plainridge, the state’s oldest slot option, having opened in June 2015, peaked at $194.6 million in slot handle in July 2017.