August gaming revenues climb back to pre-pandemic low
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BOSTON -- In their first full month of gambling operations since reopening, the two casinos and one slots parlor in Massachusetts pulled in just more than $71 million in gaming revenue, about $20 million of which will flow to the state as revenue.
The Mass. Gaming Commission reported August revenue at the three facilities -- Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor in Everett -- Tuesday and said the three facilities that are operating under capacity limits and without some popular table games generated 83 percent of the gross gaming revenue realized in August 2019 while operating just 49 percent of the gaming positions that were available a year ago.
State government can expect to collect about $10.6 million in August taxes -- more than half of the monthly total -- from Encore Boston Harbor's $42.39 million in gross gaming revenue and another roughly $4.6 million in taxes from MGM Springfield's roughly $18.46 million in revenue.
Combined, the two full-scale casinos generated about $15.2 million in tax revenue for the state last month. The two full-scale casinos in Massachusetts are taxed at a rate of 25 percent of their gross gaming revenue.
Massachusetts is also entitled to more than $4.06 million of Plainridge's August revenue in the form of taxes intended for local aid and another roughly $915,207 for the Race Horse Development Fund. That works out to a total tax and assessment hit of about $4.97 million from $10.17 million in slot machine revenue last month, according to the Gaming Commission.
Plainridge is taxed on 49 percent of its gross gaming revenue, with 82 percent of the levy going to local aid and 18 percent to a fund set up with the goal of supporting horse racing.
Even though the casinos and slots parlor are not reopened to their pre-pandemic levels, August's $20 million in state revenue matches the pre-pandemic low end of typical monthly gaming revenues.
Massachusetts has collected a cumulative $615 million in taxes and assessments from the three gaming facilities that have opened under the 2011 expanded gaming law, the Gaming Commission said.
