Massachusetts’ three casinos – Plainridge Park Casino, MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor – combined for $96.7 million in gross gaming revenue in October.
The three locations paid the state $27.2 million in taxes. Tax revenue would certainly increase if lawmakers legalized Massachusetts online casinos.
October’s revenue was 6.5% higher that September’s $90.4 million. That was the good news. The bad news was September’s revenue was the worst in 2023, making October the second worst. Still, it’s an improvement.
October’s casino revenue was down slightly compared to October 2022’s $97.3 million.
Combined with October’s sports betting numbers, Massachusetts’ entire legal gambling industry totaled $155.8 million in revenue last month. Sports and casino gambling amounted to $39 million in taxes.
Encore Boston Harbor was the most popular casino in October by a long shot
Despite some states around it legalizing iGaming, Massachusetts online casinos are still not legal. So, casino gambling in The Bay State is limited to its three retail casinos.
Massachusetts residents seem to prefer to spend their dollars at Encore Boston Harbor. Last month, the casino led the charge with $62.4 million in gross gaming revenue. That’s essentially double what MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park tallied.
MGM Springfield’s revenue came out to $21.5 million. Plainridge Park followed at $12.8 million.
Slots were favored by players last month. Slot machine revenue came out to $64.2 million across the state. Encore Boston Harbor contributed more than half of that, totaling $34.2 million in slot revenue. MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park accounted for $17.2 million and $12.8 million of the total, respectively.
Massachusetts casinos tallied about $32.5 million from table game revenue. Encore’s table revenue came out to $28.2 million, while MGM Springfield clocked in at $4.37 million.
Encore Boston Harbor was the leader in tax dollars out of the trio, compiling $15.6 million. Plainridge Park’s tax figure came out to $6.26 million, and MGM Springfield saw a tax total of $5.38 million.
| Slot Revenue | Table Game Revenue | Total Revenue | Taxes Paid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encore Boston Harbor | $34,218,885 | $28,148,049 | $62,366,934 | $15,591,733 |
| MGM Springfield | $17,166,898 | $4,368,050 | $21,534,948 | $5,383,737 |
| Plainridge Park | $12,768,619 | N/A | $12,768,619 | $6,256,623 |
| TOTALS | $64,154,403 | $32,516,099 | $96,670,503 | $27,232,094 |
We now know MGM Springfield’s September numbers after cyberattack
Last month, PlayMA contacted Thomas Mills, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s communications division chief. The MGC’s report had listed MGM Springfield’s September data as incomplete, as MGM was the victim of a cyberattack in August.
In an email to PlayMA, Mills confirmed that the cyberattack “(was) the reason for the issue.”
Hackers allegedly went through LinkedIn to find a profile of an MGM employee in Las Vegas. Then, they impersonated the employee over the phone with MGM’s help desk and gained access to the system. It resulted in a mess. According to Forbes, the cyberattack reduced MGM’s daily revenue and cash flow by 10 to 20%. Its market cap decreased by $2 billion.
Now that the dust has seemingly settled on the incident, MGC’s numbers show that MGM Springfield tallied $20.9 million in gross gaming revenue in September. Back when the September numbers were first released, the MGC listed the casino’s revenue total at $17.4 million.
September stands as MGM Springfield’s lone month with less than $21 million in gross gaming revenue in the past 12 months.
More than $1.5 billion has been collected in taxes
Now that we have October’s numbers and September’s updated figures, the state of Massachusetts has collected a total of $1.6 billion in taxes from casinos, according to the MGC.
Plainridge Park Casino is labeled as a Category 2 slots facility, which means its gross gaming revenue is taxed at 49%. Around 82% of its taxes go toward Local Aid. The remaining 18% goes to the Race Horse Development Fund.
Both Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield are Category 1 resort-casinos, which equates to a 25% tax on their respective revenue totals. Around 20% of tax dollars go toward Local Aid, 15% goes toward the Transportation Infrastructure Fund and 14% to the Education Fund.
Also, 10% goes to the Debt and Long-Term Liability Reduction Trust Fund. An additional 10% goes toward accelerated debt and defeasance. The rest goes to a variety of other funds, which can be found on the MGC’s website.
