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Massachusetts Casino Plan On the Ropes

Posted on March 12, 2008

Massachusetts Casino Plan On the Ropes

As the debate heats up on allowing casinos in Massachusetts, the gambling industry in New England is cooling down, and so is support for Governor Deval Patrick's casino plans.

Slot machine revenues are off by more than 6 percent at Connecticut's casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, in the five months ending Jan. 31, compared to a year ago.

At Twin River in Rhode Island, the recent addition of almost 1,000 new video lottery terminals, which are very similar to slot machines, has improved overall revenue there, but the earnings per machine have dropped by 6 percent in the last three months, leading operators to impose new cost-cutting measures, including shutting down two restaurants for all but weekends.

Specialists said the trend is partly a result of the nation's faltering economy, affecting the casino industry nationwide, and is also an indication that the region's casinos are exhausting the supply of new gamblers who have fueled rapidly rising profits since casinos were introduced in the 1990s. Now, they are beginning to com pete more intensely for existing gamblers.

The trend could make it more difficult for Governor Deval Patrick to sell the Legislature on his plan to license three casinos in Massachusetts, particularly outside the Boston metropolitan region.

William Eadington, an economist and director of gambling research at the University of Nevada at Reno, said the current trend shows that the $220 million expansion and renovation of Twin River in Rhode Island merely shifted the New England market geographically; it has not expanded it.

Eadington said an important test will come in May, when Foxwoods is to open its $700 million MGM Grand casino.

Supporters of Patrick's bill are more interested in the 20,000 jobs it would create and the revenue it would generate for state-sponsored programs.

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