Happy New Year! New England Casinos have seen their share of tough times in 2020. In 2021, New England Casinos will begin to see relief. Rough times are still in the future for a couple of months. However, 2021 will bring more prosperity to the region’s casinos. Here are 5 Predictions for New England Casinos in 2021.
Casinos in Massachusetts. MGM Springfield Springfield. At 2 million square feet and with a price tag of nearly a billion dollars, the MGM Springfield was bound to make a. Encore Boston Harbor Everett. Plainridge Park Casino Plainridge.
Bally’s is now the name. Assessing its properties is now its game. 2021 will be a hectic year for the company formerly known as the Rhode Island-based Twin River Worldwide Holdings. TRWH CEO George Papanier stuck to the script, saying the company aimed to unite “our increasingly national footprint under a singular preeminent brand.”
Raising the once-mighty Bally’s Park Place out of the pits in Atlantic City is their first step. Paying a bargain-basement $25 million for the property allows for significant funds to be available for capital improvements. The most important is a complete overhaul of the hotel-room inventory.
Over the coming months, the Company will continue to implement a unified branding initiative, which complements the considerable geographic growth. At home, the Flagship Twin River Hotel and Casino will undergo expansion and updates in 2021 also.
2021 will not provide any easy fixes toward normalcy. January’s surges from the holidays will complicate the handling of vaccines. Casinos must continue the safety protocols even after hospitalizations decrease. Staff pandemic fatigue inside the casinos must not compromise any feelings of visitor confidence.
NETimeGambling predicts that the summer of 2021 will be the summer of hope. It will be imperative to get all New Casinos back on the increased revenue track. Spring Fever with four months of vaccines may put New England’s casinos on the road to recovery. Casino Entertainment will continue to add performances. New England casinos and their large venues will be opened with decreased capacities and stringent protocols. We predict more outside celebrations like food truck festivals, outdoor movies, and outdoor concerts.
Yes. March will be key to opening all casino hotels. The small hotels will bring more gamblers through the doors when capacity limits increase. Oxford, Twin River/Tiverton, MGM Springfield, and Encore Boston Harbor will be the first, followed by all Foxwoods 4 hotels. Revenue will see an increase across the board. A slight increase or no decrease will be a sign of a long road back to normalcy.
OK, so this is a wild prediction. But at the end of 2021, Wynn Resorts will be looking to make Encore Boston Harbor stand out among the rest.
Wynn Resorts purchased 11 acres of land near the casino when it began building. Encore Boston Harbor has the space to realize broader ambitions. Rumors concerning the MBTA maintenance facility and the Exelon power plant across the street have hinted towards a high-end entertainment complex. We shall see.
It could be earlier. After Mohegan Sun shows it can exist safely with limits and protocols, other poker rooms will open. By late February, after the holiday surge begins to subside, Poker Rooms at Encore, MGM, and Foxwoods will open first due to the excellent ventilation in those areas. Hollywood Bangor and Twin River Poker Rooms will take longer due to size and ventilation.
Besides Poker Rooms, more tables will be utilized in each casino. In the larger casinos, more areas will open up, enabling fringe novelty games to come back.
Yes. The biggest of our 5 Predictions for New England Casinos in 2021 is the arrival of legalized sports betting. The Tribes and Gov. Lamont bickered over it becoming a reality in Connecticut for months. But warmer weather will see warmer relations, and Connecticut will have legalized sports betting AND online gambling by summer. Foxwoods contracted with DraftKings. Their deal is said to set the stage for online sports betting “ahead of the anticipated launch of legal sports betting in Connecticut.”
“We’ve been talking about this for close to a decade in this state. And I think Connecticut ought to participate and it ought to be led by the tribes.”
Gov. Ned Lamont, ConnecticutNot close behind is Massachusetts. But, the Senate shot down legalizing sports betting in MA on two separate occasions. Trying to keep hope alive, two joint letters have been penned to ask for action. According to LegalSportsReport.com, ” One came from Penn National and Wynn asking for the casinos to control the industry. The other is from local professional teams, DraftKings and FanDuel urging for inclusion in the economic development bill.”
The year 2021 will be better than in 2020. The casino, travel, and tourism industries will take a big step forward. But not until summer.
April showers bring May flowers and June will bring back a piece of normalcy.
Binbin