Interesting story on the Encore Casino in Everett, Massachusetts, across the Mystic River from Boston

Photo: The Encore Boston Harbor casino was bathed in the warmth of the setting sun as it towered over the streets of Charlestown from its location in Everett. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff ("Encore was built to be a destination. It became something else," Boston Globe).

Casinos are promoted pretty much the same way.  Lots of permanent jobs.  Lots of tourism and visitors from other places spending their money.

The reality is that outside of Las Vegas, casinos mostly draw upon local residents and significant new streams of revenue aren't created.

From the article:

... “Encore” shimmering in gold script at its top like a $2.6 billion monument to the idea that everything in its glow, including the hardscrabble city of Everett, would be transformed.

That was the promise of owner Wynn Resorts, when it opened seven years ago. The casino would replace a contaminated industrial waterfront that had sat empty for a century, create thousands of union jobs, generate millions in tax revenue, and build a luxury destination that would bring visitors to a long-overlooked corner of Greater Boston to stay, eat, and, of course, gamble.

Encore has delivered spectacularly on several of those promises, but the sheer ambition of some of them also highlights how many things this project was expected to be.

A dockmaster at Encore Boston Harbor helped to tie off the boat in 2019. Customers can take a free water taxi from Boston to Encore every 30 minutes.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/David L Ryan, Globe Staff

Revenue at Encore has remained relatively stable over the past two years, roughly around $210 million a quarter. But it’s becoming less profitable: Once around $62 million to $63 million a quarter two years ago, adjusted operating profit declined to $50.5 million in the first quarter of this year, before rebounding somewhat to $56.1 million in the second. Still, Encore posted the largest decline in profit among all Wynn properties in the second quarter.

After winning a hotly contested license to build Greater Boston’s only casino in 2014, Wynn executives promised a destination that would attract travelers from around the world, with high-quality dining and nightlife and entertainment “unlike anything the region has ever seen.” It wasn’t just marketing talk; it’s partly why they prevailed, with state gaming officials weighing the broader boost it would bring to the region’s economy.

Today, Encore is indeed lavish, if largely self-contained. It has become a major regional casino. But has it become the destination it was supposed to be? That might depend on where you look.

Casinos are businesses that don't want to share customers.  This last point is key.  Casinos are built to keep their patrons inside as long as possible.  They want 100% of the consumer spend.  They don't want to share customers with other businesses.  Therefore such facilities aren't so great at building up an area beyond the four walls of the building.

Just like stadiums and arenas (except in Las Vegas--"5 years later, Raiders in Las Vegas ‘a home run for the NFL’," Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Japanese tourists going to LA to see Shohei Otani--"The Shohei Ohtani Economy: A two-mile ride to Dodger Stadium, for $85," Los Angeles Times), most customers are local, and the money they spend ends up being shifted from other forms of entertainment.  It's not new spending.

But if high-rollers and tourists have their place, most of Encore’s players are local, according to former executives. For all of Wynn’s ambitions to create an international destination, its bread-and-butter clientele — as is the case with most casinos outside of Las Vegas — consists largely of people who can drive there.

“It’s a place for middle-class people to have an upper-class experience,” said Michele Baker, 58, of Brookline, who often turns to Encore’s posh hotel rooms for a staycation.

... “Why would you go to Everett” for those things when Boston already has them, said Raymond Pineault, the former president of Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino. “I don’t know what their expectations were, but I wouldn’t say it’s the international destination they were hoping for. It’s a nice regional casino.”

Most of the time, new casinos have competition.

And Encore faces tough competition: Long-established tribal casinos in Connecticut with so many amenities that gambling feels almost like an afterthought. New casinos in New Hampshire. Two others in Rhode Island. And the explosion of sports betting, which generated nearly $755 million of gross gaming revenue in Massachusetts in 2025.

In-city casinos usually lack the amenities of a destination like a city with multiple casinos (Las Vegas) or a resort.

But unlike Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — not to mention Las Vegas casinos — Encore lacks the sort of amenities that draw non-gamblers and multiday visitors. With little available land, there’s no golf course, pool, or shopping mall. Nor is there a theater or arena for major concerts or big comedians to perform; state law, designed to protect nearby concert venues, prohibits Encore from operating on-site entertainment facilities of between 1,000 and 3,500 seats.

As for retail, options are few: a gift shop called “The Drugstore,” a Wynn women’s clothing boutique, and a watch store. At least one storefront is empty and available on the ground floor.

Photo: John Tlumacki, Boston Globe.

Broader revitalization is a slow process.  As I write elsewhere with sports, and it's just as true with casinos and resorts, if you want broader development you need a plan ("Framework of characteristics that support successful community development in association with the development of professional sports facilities").  And some places, whether or not you have a plan, might not have the right preconditions to improve.

But, the broader transformation of Everett remains a work in progress. Encore has helped spur development beyond its campus, including the proposed New England Revolution soccer stadium across the street. But much of the surrounding area remains industrial. Other projects are still in the works.

... “Encore needs to evolve into becoming much more of an all-around Boston-area entertainment resort,” said John Boyd, principal of gaming consulting firm The Boyd Company. “Rather than: just casino plus restaurants plus hotel.”

In other words, to truly succeed, it needs to become a regional destination. When asked how that’s going, a company spokesman offered a pointedly local answer: Wynn “is proud to call Everett home.”

A charter bus for Encore Boston Harbor picked up passengers on Essex Street, a block from Chinatown, in February. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

Asians drive casino revenues on the East Coast.  Earlier this year, the Globe ran a great series about the impact of gaming and the Encore Casino on the Asian community ("Casinos in Massachusetts/New England deliberately target Asians").