Gaming numbers improved in January

THE MASSACHUSETTS GAMING Commission released the casino revenue figures for the month of January 2021 this week and those revenue numbers look encouraging.  All three gaming venues, Encore Boston Harbor, MGM Springfield, and Plainridge Park, showed increases in their monthly revenues.

Encore Boston Harbor saw slot revenues increase by a total of $3.6 million over the previous month’s numbers, rising from $16.1 million in December to $19.6 million in January.  Table game revenues increased from $13.1 million in December to $13.68 million in January

MGM Springfield saw its slot revenues increase by almost $3.3 million, from $9.3 million in December to $12.6 million in January.  Table game revenue decreased slightly from just over $2 million in December to $1.8 million in January.

Plainridge Park saw its monthly slot revenues increase by just over $600,000, from just over $9.1 million in December to almost $9.8 million in January.

It is important to note that from January 1 through January 26, these three gaming venues were not open on a 24/7 basis.  Encore Boston Harbor was only open for 12 hours per day, MGM Springfield was open 13.5 hours per day, and Plainridge Park was open for 14.5 hours per day.  Beginning on January 27, all three facilities returned to 24/7 operations.

When you factor in the reduced hours of operation during the first 26 days of the month and the reduced number of slot machines that are available due to occupancy restrictions, we see that Plainridge Park led the pack with $605.45 per machine per day (pmd), which oddly enough represents a 5.73 percent in pmd revenue when compared with December’s $642.26 pmd.

Encore Boston Harbor saw its per machine per day slot revenue increase by 5.1 percent, rising from $570.34 to $599.45 in January.  Finally, MGM Springfield’s per machine per day slot revenues increase by 17.18 percent from $481.83 to $564.59.

As an industry standard, $300per machine per day is a target revenue number, and we see all three facilities easily beat that number.  No matter how you slice it, these increases show that there is a large amount of demand for gaming in Massachusetts.

By contrast, the two casinos in Connecticut, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, which have been open on a 24/7 basis for the entire month of January, although at a reduced capacity as well, did $24.5 million and $37.6 million in slot revenues, respectively, in January.

Paul DeBole is an assistant professor of political science at Lasell University in Newton.