Encore Boston Harbor Executive Director of Hotel Sales and Catering Joan Esneault, second from left, and other Wynn Resorts executives help Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria cut the ribbon on the new casino in June. Photo by Evan Richman, courtesy of Wynn Resorts
In the first eight days that Encore Boston Harbor was open, gamblers wagered more than $93.5 million on the slot machines alone at the Everett casino and the Wynn Resorts operation counted $16.79 million in total revenue, or more than $2 million a day.
More than half of the eight days’ worth of revenue, $9.12 million, was generated by the resort casino’s 3,158 slot machines. Those machines returned about 90.25 percent of the $93.5 million that players put into them as winnings and held back 9.75 percent for the House, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission reported in its monthly revenue roundup.
The casino’s 242 table games brought in another $7.67 million in revenue for Encore between its June 23 grand opening and the end of June.
Encore Boston Harbor officials touted the Everett facility’s smooth opening last week and said everything was operating well at the $2.6 billion resort gambling palace.
“So far, so good,” Encore Boston Harbor President Robert DeSalvio said last week on WGBH’s Greater Boston. “However, I will tell you that it takes a while to ramp up and build these properties up to full potential – you have to build a database – so for us, there’s an expectation that it doesn’t come automatically, but it will come over time.”
Though he did not disclose the casino’s revenues for its first eight days, DeSalvio said it is “way too early to tell” whether Encore Boston Harbor will meet its expectation of $800 million in annual revenue.
The first week-plus of action at the Greater Boston resort casino generated about $4.2 million in tax revenue for the state, but coincided with the second-worst month on record for the state’s first full-scale casino, MGM Springfield. While Encore counted $16.79 million in revenue in eight days, MGM Springfield took in just more than $19.95 million in revenue over the full month of June.
Gamblers put $174.75 million into MGM’s slot machines last month, generating $14.7 million in revenue for the casino. MGM Springfield’s slots paid out at a higher rate than Encore Boston Harbor’s machines in June. In Springfield, the machines returned 91.59 percent of money wagered to players while Encore’s slots returned 90.25 percent.
With another $5.26 million in revenue from table games, June represented the worst revenue month for MGM Springfield since January ($19.7 million) and only the second full month since opening last August that the casino did not earn at least $21 million from gaming.
