Encore Boston Harbor Revenue Falls 22% in Its First Month of Strike Action

The state's largest casino took $46.1 million from its tables and slots in September, its weakest month since the pandemic, while more than 1,300 workers picketed outside. The regulator's statewide total also carries an MGM Springfield figure that matches August's to the cent.

• Encore Boston Harbor's gross gaming revenue fell 22.1% year on year to $46.06 million in September, the first month of a strike by more than 1,300 workers, according to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC)
• The three casinos generated $82.69 million, down 13.6% on the commission's September 2025 figure and down from $101.9 million in August
• Plainridge Park rose 2.4% to $14.65 million; the MGM Springfield figure, $21.98 million, is identical to its August result
• Sportsbooks produced $71.19 million of taxable revenue on $772.9 million of wagers, revenue up 36% on a year earlier although handle fell 3.4%
• The strike that began on 4 September is unresolved, and Encore says it is waiting for the unions to answer a September proposal

Encore's Worst Month Since February 2021 Arrives With the Picket Line

Encore Boston Harbor, Wynn Resorts' casino in Everett, reported table and slot revenue of $46,064,209 for September, against $59.13 million a year earlier and $62.87 million in August, according to the property's monthly report published by the MGC on 20 October. It is the casino's lowest month since February 2021, when Covid-19 restrictions were still in force, according to The Boston Globe and Boston.com.

The fall ran across the floor. Slot coin-in dropped 20.3% to $354.4 million and slot revenue 23.6% to $26.92 million, with the hold slipping from 7.93% to 7.59%. Table revenue fell 19.8% to $19.15 million. At Encore's 25% rate the Commonwealth collected $11.52 million, about $3.27 million less than a year earlier. The figures exclude hotel, food and entertainment revenue, which the commission does not track.

Plainridge Park Casino, the Penn Entertainment slots parlour taxed at 49%, produced $14.65 million, up 2.4%, on coin-in up 4.2%. For MGM Springfield the commission's summary shows $21,978,915 of revenue and $5.49 million of tax, but those numbers, down to the split between $18,541,354 of slots and $3,437,562 of tables, are the ones MGM Springfield reported for August. Its property table ends at August 2026, and the summary's September 2025 comparison for the casino, $22.26 million, matches its August 2025 row rather than its September 2025 figure of $24.10 million. The commission has not said whether the figure is a placeholder; the Globe and Boston.com both reported it as September revenue.

On the commission's figures the three casinos generated $82.69 million and $24.19 million of tax, against $95.69 million a year earlier. Encore and Plainridge Park, the two properties whose September numbers are unambiguous, fell 17.3% combined.

Sports Wagering Moved the Other Way

Sportsbooks settled $772.9 million of wagers in September, down from $800.5 million a year earlier, but taxable revenue rose to $71.19 million from $52.34 million and tax to $14.22 million from $10.45 million, according to the same report. DraftKings settled $389.4 million for $33.1 million of taxable revenue and FanDuel $199.2 million for $21.9 million, together 76.9% of online handle. The commission, which is also reviewing how sportsbooks use AI, says the state has collected about $2.55 billion from the casinos since they opened.

Both Sides Read the Numbers as Leverage

More than 1,300 workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 26 and Teamsters Local 25, among them slot attendants, waitstaff, cooks and drivers, walked out at 7am on 4 September after their contract expired on 31 August. Members had voted 97% to authorise a strike on 20 August, according to WHDH. The unions want better wages, benefits and job protections, and say Encore wants health care funded out of pay rises.

UNITE HERE Local 26 president Carlos Aramayo told the Globe the figures show many people in Massachusetts "aren't going to cross the picket line". An Encore spokesperson told the paper the casino is waiting for the unions' response to a proposal it made in September, adding that "when Encore's revenue declines, so does the tax revenue it generates for the Commonwealth." The sides have held only two formal bargaining sessions since the walkout, the Globe reported. Bill Werner, a hospitality labour relations specialist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the paper that headcount and foot traffic would show the strike's effect more clearly than revenue.

The MGC's agenda for its 22 October meeting listed an update on the impact of the Encore labour discussions from Caitlin Monahan, director of its Investigations and Enforcement Bureau, and Derek Lennon, its chief financial and accounting officer.

Wynn's chief executive, Craig Billings, had set out the company's case a week earlier in a Globe opinion piece. He wrote that labour costs at Encore have risen nearly 37% in four years while revenue grew less than 2%, and argued that the state is undermining its 2011 limited-licence model with sports betting, online lottery "eInstant" games, a possible online casino bill and an amendment allowing historical horse racing machines at racing licensees. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and all three casinos oppose that plan, according to Focus Gaming News. Encore was softening before the strike: its second-quarter adjusted property EBITDAR fell from $63.9 million to $56.1 million, Wynn reported in August.

Encore Is the State's Tax Base, Which Makes This a Fiscal Story

Encore produced about 56% of the state's casino revenue in September, even in its worst month in more than five years. That is why a dispute at one property shows up in state finances: the $3.27 million drop in Encore's tax is larger than the $3.17 million fall across all three casinos on the commission's figures, because Plainridge Park paid slightly more. Both sides now argue from the regulator's spreadsheet: the union reads 22% as proof the boycott works, Wynn as proof of what the state loses while the dispute runs. Both can be true, which is why the commission has put the impact on its agenda.

The Revenue Fall Overstates and Understates the Strike at Once

Not all of the decline is obviously the picket line: a hold of 7.59% against 7.93% costs revenue on any volume, and table results swing. But the 20.3% fall in coin-in, which records what customers put through the machines regardless of luck, is consistent with the union's claim that visitors stayed away. In the other direction, an operator running with fewer staff also pays less in wages, so lost gaming revenue is not the same as lost profit. Wynn's third-quarter results, which include the strike's first month, should be the first place that trade-off shows.

The Statewide Number Needs Checking Before Anyone Builds on It

If the summary repeats August for MGM Springfield, the statewide total and its year-on-year comparison are not like for like, and the steady picture reported at the other two casinos rests partly on an August number. The direction does not change, since Encore and Plainridge Park fell 17.3%. But a regulator whose reports underpin tax, host-community payments and now a strike assessment should say whether the row is a placeholder, and correct it if so.

One month of the strike has coincided with about $3.3 million less casino tax from Encore, and the unions now have a number for their placards. Wynn's chief executive argues that the larger threat to that tax base is the expansion the legislature is still weighing.