It’s hard to believe but we’re only a few days from the opening of Plainridge Park Casino, bringing gambling to one of the last major, 
untapped markets in the U.S.: Massachusetts. While the Penn National Gaming property hasn’t been entirely free from controversy, it also comes with a ready-made player base in the form of the 7,500 Bay Staters who drive to Rhode Island every day for their fix of slot action.
Already it has literally paved the way for newly improved roads in its host city of Plainville. And though, with a 49% tax rate (not as punitive as Rhode Island’s 61% top rate), Plainridge has the toughest row to hoe towards profitability, it will also have the market to itself while the resort casinos slowly, slowly move toward completion. The southeastern region is still up for grabs (advantage: Brockton) and Wynn Resorts‘ project in Everett is hobbled by litigation and the temper tantrums of Boston Mayor Martin “McCheese” Walsh.
A mere 35 miles from Boston, Plainridge Park it set to hit the ground 
running. Although Penn’s racino is a very different product from what Steve Wynn intends to build in Everett, it should provide a reliable measurement of Massachusetts’ appetite for gaming. The Boston Globe‘s resident worrywart, Shirley Leung gives the facility a favorable review, even if she frets unrealistically of Atlantic City-style calamity coming to Beantown. “I have never operated in a market with a complete monopoly,” is the sanguine response of racino General Manager Lance George. Indeed, if Penn’s revenue projections hold up, Plainridge should pay for itself by the time Wynn opens.
* Tough economic times in Macao could force a cutback in government services, as players continue to lie low. Analysts for CLSA made the surprising discovery that Macanese punters are largely with monogamous, with 65% sticking to one casino per visit. That’s good news for Stanley Ho‘s Grand Lisboa and Sheldon Adelson‘s Venetian Macao, singled out by players as their favorite properties. Most respondents said their $471-per-trip budget would remain flat over the next three years, which isn’t what operators want to hear, especially not with six mega-expensive properties on the launching pad.
* MGM Grand, almost predictably, tops a list of the world’s largest hotels, at least when Signature is added to the room count. But who’s in the #2 spot? Genting Highlands, in Malaysia. Who knew? Subtract those Signature timeshares and the ranking is flipped, with Genting taking the palm.
* Slot parlors could spread willy-nilly across at least six counties in Florida if what the state calls a “jaw-dropping gambling expansion” is allowed to stand by an appellate court. Although such a jailbreak would get the Seminole Tribe off the hook for a $1 billion obligation to the state (and has been shabbily treated in its efforts to extend its compact), it’s taking Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s side in the case.
* Citing “intense new competition,” Delaware racino owners are turning up the pressure on the Legislature to pass SB 30, the Casino Reinvestment Act. The racinos have absorbed seven tax increases 
and currently stagger under a 63.25% impost, when various levies (including a subsidy for horsemen) are added together. “Capital budgets for site improvements have been slashed, and new projects that would increase the desirability of Delaware casinos have been shelved because they are not financeable,” complains Delaware Park President Bill Fasy.
SB 30 would rescind an annual $3 million fee for table games and halve the tax rate on those games to 15%. Tax credits for capex maintenance/upgrades would also be included. To reinforce his argument, Fasy points out that racinos are the biggest taxpayers in Delaware’s business sector. With its gambling industry just scraping by, it seems it would behoove Delaware to pass SB 30.
