Casinos in Connecticut, elsewhere already feeling Encore's impact
Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun posted double-digit declines in slot-machine revenue in July, the first full month of operation for Encore Boston Harbor, the Everett, Mass., facility whose impact already is being felt among competitors in the region.
Twin River Casino in Lincoln, R.I., announced last week it was laying off 95 workers due to a reduction in business it attributed to Encore.
Figures released late last week show Mohegan Sun kept $46.7 million in slots revenue after paying prizes, 15.1 percent less than it kept during the same month the previous year. It was the biggest year-over-year decline the Uncasville casino has experienced in any month since February 2013.
Foxwoods kept $38 million in slots revenue last month, an 11.2 percent decrease. Both casinos have experienced 13 straight months of decreases. Mohegan Sun contributed $11.7 million of its July slots revenue to the state while Foxwoods forwarded $9.8 million.
Encore, which opened June 23, kept $21.2 million in slots revenue in July, surpassing MGM Springfield, Massachusetts’ other resort casino, which kept $15.5 million. Encore also kept $27.4 million in table-games revenue, far more than MGM Springfield, which kept $4.9 million.
MGM Springfield’s slots revenue and overall gaming revenue in July was up slightly over the previous month. The casino opened nearly a year ago.
The Connecticut casinos release their table-games revenue on a quarterly basis.
Twin River announced layoffs of about 30 table-games supervisors and 65 table-games dealers, according to Patti Doyle, a spokeswoman for Twin River Worldwide Holdings, which owns the Lincoln casino as well as one in Tiverton, R.I.
“We believe the reduced volume in business (at the Lincoln facility) is due primarily to the recent opening of Encore,” Doyle wrote in an email. “Our impacted dealers were offered the opportunity to relocate to Dover Downs with no loss of seniority.”
Twin River Worldwide Holdings owns the Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Dover, Del.
Doyle said a hoped-for increase in business after Labor Day would enable Twin River to hire back some of the employees it laid off.
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