Massachusetts Encore Casino Revenue Plunges In First Month Of Strike
Report shows September dip of 22.1% while other Boston-area casinos held steady
Not since February 2021 — when casinos were still working their way back from pandemic closures and required degrees of social distancing, masking, and capacity limitation — has the single-month gross gaming revenue (GGR) at Encore Boston Harbor been as low as it was this September.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission released September numbers Tuesday showing the Everett casino with $46.06 million in GGR, down 22.1% compared to September 2025. It marked the lowest haul for the Wynn Resorts-owned property since that $40.99 million month in early 2021.
There’s no pandemic to point the finger at this time, but there is an obvious cause: the worker strike at Encore that began Sept. 4.
UNITE HERE Local 26, the union representing many of the 1,300-plus workers on strike, issued a press release Tuesday spotlighting the revenue decline at Encore and contrasting it with the two other Boston-area commercial casinos, MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park, in this chart:
Year-over-year GGR at Plainridge Park and MGM Springfield was relatively steady — up 2.4% for the former, down 1.2% for the latter. The union singled out a decline in the amount of action on slot machines at Encore, which dropped more than 20% compared to September 2025.
Despite the declines, Encore Boston Harbor remained the top casino in the state in terms of total GGR.
Hitting Wynn where it hurts
UNITE HERE Local 26 noted in its release that over the previous two years-plus of monthly reports, “Encore’s slot coin-in never fell more than 9.7 percent year over year, and in all but one of those 26 months it declined no more than 3.5 percent.” So the percentage decrease in September of 20.3% was more than double the worst decline in that span and about six times the second-worst decline.
What are the workers striking over? They’re seeking pay increases of $10 per hour over four years and a minimum starting wage of $25 an hour, along with contractual guarantees of healthcare coverage and pension contributions for all employees.
The Wynn Resorts team, meanwhile, has other Boston gambling issues on its mind, as CEO Craig Billings wrote an op-ed in The Boston Globe last week arguing against the legalization of historical horse racing machines in Massachusetts.
Eric has been a professional editor and writer for more than 25 years, including nearly 20 years of experience covering the gambling industry. He was editor-in-chief of the poker magazine All In from 2005-2015 and manag…
