Massachusetts’ August Gambling Revenues Released
The three Massachusetts casinos generated $98 million in revenues in August, according to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s latest monthly revenue report. Encore Boston Harbor (pictured) was once again the top venue for state gamblers over the month.
Meanwhile Massachusetts online sportsbooks had a $307 million handle for the month, with revenues of $22.51 million. That handle was down 6.78% on the amount wagered by state bettors in July. Home state heroes, the Boston-based DraftKings, remained the most popular operator for the state’s sports bettors.
The Bay State retail sportsbooks took in an overall handle of $7.67 million over August, holding onto $157,000 of that as revenue.
In other Massachusetts gambling news for the month, Fanatics launched its online sportsbook in the state, and Caesars terminated its agreement to build a new retail sportsbook at Raynham Park in Taunton.
Casinos Hit Record August Revenues
The three Massachusetts casinos are Plainridge Park Casino, MGM Springfield, and Encore Boston Harbor. They collectively reported gross gaming revenue of $97.9 million for August.
That’s marginally down on July’s stats, but up 5.9% percent year-on-year. It also happens to be the best August numbers for the state’s casinos since the market opened in 2018.
Wynn Resorts’ Encore Boston Harbor led the pack once again, reporting a monthly GGR of $61.3 million, which was a marginal increase from its previous month’s earnings.
This performance translated to state taxes amounting to $15.3 million, accounting for 55.4% of all casino gaming taxes claimed for August.
MGM Springfield maintained its pace with a GGR of $23.5 million, resulting in $5.8 million in casino gaming taxes. In contrast, Plainridge Park Casino reported slightly more than $13 million, marking a 5.8% decrease from July. Due to its higher tax rate of 49%, it contributed $6.4 million in taxes.
Related: Our expert guide to Massachusetts online casinos
Sports Betting Declines
The sports betting sector in Massachusetts experienced a more pronounced decline in August.
The combined taxable sports wagering revenue for the state’s retail and mobile sports betting operators was $22.7 million, marking a 22.8% decrease month-on-month.
Breaking down the numbers, MGM Springfield reported wagers of $912,651, resulting in a taxable revenue of $64,934.
The Encore Boston Harbor sportsbook saw $3.9 million in handle. But interestingly, it reported a negative taxable revenue of -$57,925. The state does not break down revenues by sport, so its hard to tell why the WynnBET retail book took a hammering in August.
However, Wynn Resorts did announce the closure of its WynnBET brand in several states during August, but not in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile Plainridge Park’s sportsbook saw overall wagers of $2.8 million, leading to a taxable revenue of $150,773.
Decent Full Debut for Fanatics, Betr Lags Behind Again
On the online sports betting front, DraftKings led with wagers of $161.9 million and a taxable revenue of $10.7 million. FanDuel followed with wagers of $79.4 million and a taxable revenue of $7.4 million.
Rounding out the bottom of the pack was Betr, the struggling sports betting app backed by social media and sports personality Jake Paul. It took in a measly $11,269 in revenues for the month on a $150,000 total handle.
Those numbers do not look promising for the company as it awaits the figures for its September launch in Virginia.
Fanatics, debuting fully in Massachusetts for the month after a previous beta phase, was well behind the rest of the pack, but still far ahead of Betr. Fanatics took in a reasonable $4.4 million in handle, but shone in the hold department – keeping $545,000 of that as revenues.
That’s more revenues than WynnBet and Barstool Sportsbook, despite both operators taking more than double Fanatics’ overall handle.
Considering WynnBET is struggling, and Penn Entertainment has axed Barstool to be rebranded as ESPN Bet, Fanatics may well improve on this already decent debut.
Since the introduction of mobile sports betting in Massachusetts in March, the state has now amassed $50.3 million in taxes from operators.
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