Plainridge has ‘rare’ opening, says former UMass researcher

PLAINRIDGE PARK CASINO, seen here in an aerial rendering, opened for business June 24, and according to at least one observer, former University of Massachusetts professor Clyde W. Barrow, it had an
PLAINRIDGE PARK CASINO, seen here in an aerial rendering, opened for business June 24, and according to at least one observer, former University of Massachusetts professor Clyde W. Barrow, it had an "absolutely astronomical" first week of revenue generation. / COURTESY PLAINRIDGE PARK CASINO

PLAINVILLE, Mass. – Plainridge Park Casino posted gross gaming revenue of more than $6 million in its first week. One gaming expert says the new Massachusetts slots parlor took in almost double what Twin River Casino collects on a per gaming position basis.

According to figures released Thursday by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, unaudited revenue totaled $6,154,626 for Plainridge, a category 2 slots parlor, covering opening day June 24 through Tuesday, June 30. Of that, Plainridge was taxed $2,461,851, while $553,916 went to the Race Horse Development Fund, meaning that roughly $3,015,767 was remitted to the commonwealth, the commission reported.

Gross gaming revenue is the amount left over after gamblers have been paid their winnings. It is standard to return 50 percent of the amount gambled to the players as a group. Audited figures will be released Aug. 17.

“We are pleased by the revenue results and the patron response to the Commonwealth’s first casino,” said Lance George, Plainridge Park’s vice president and general manager, in a statement emailed to Providence Business News.

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Gaming expert Clyde W. Barrow, professor and chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas-Pan American, and former director of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis, said the win per day for the Massachusetts casino – the amount the casino takes in per gaming position – comes out to $586.
(Plainridge is authorized to operate 1,250 video lottery terminals, 50 of which are virtual table games machines with six gaming positions each. Thus, Plainridge has 1,500 gaming positions, or seats. The win per day is calculated by taking total gross gaming revenue and dividing it 10,500 (the product of the seven days of operation and the 1,500 gaming positions).)
In contrast, the monthly average of win per day at Twin River was $284 for fiscal year 2015, according to Barrow and data posted on the Rhode Island lottery division’s website.

“This level of revenue generation is not unprecedented, but it is very rare, especially for a slots parlor,” Barrow said. “It speaks volumes about Massachusetts residents’ propensity to gamble.”

In a separate interview before the Massachusetts numbers were posted, John E. Taylor Jr., chairman of the Twin River Management Group, said Twin River revenue is holding steady.

“It’s very early in this process and there’s a lot of settling out to be done, but as of right now we are either flat or slightly up over the same period last year, which is good, which hopefully means that what Plainridge is doing is actually growing or expanding the market,” he said. “We’re pleased with what we’re seeing.”

Twin River Spokeswoman Patti Doyle declined further comment.

Data for June was not available from the Rhode Island website, but net terminal income for Twin River, which is comparable to gross gaming revenue in Massachusetts, totaled $43.7 million in May of fiscal year 2015, an increase of 6.3 percent from May 2014. For the month of May, the casino’s win per day amounted to $310 in fiscal year 2015, an increase from $292 in May 2014.

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