You may have heard of the vote on March 13th that rejected a proposal to license one casino in New Hampshire with up to 5,000 video slot machines and 150 table games. The vote to kill the bill was 173 to 144 and Governor Maggie Hassan remains in favor of the one casino. What you didn’t read in the article is that their already is a vibrant gaming scene in NH with upwards of 9 licensed poker rooms in the Granite State operating daily. These rooms offer low limit poker and tournaments and even have blackjack and roulette. The caveat is that 35% of the poker room’s profits must be dedicated to a charity. Dozens of charitable organizations benefit from this, and there is a 5 year waiting list to get in on the action. The state also takes 13%. This is no small chunk of change. Rockingham Gaming LLC, which operates two of the poker rooms in Rockingham and Seabrook contributes nearly $2,000,000 yearly to charitable organizations and the state of NH. These rooms originated in 2006, and are regulated by the New Hampshire Racing & Charitable Gaming Commission.
Topics: Gaming, Blog, loyalty program
All Star's client at a number of its Hollywood branded casinos in the mid-west, and owner/operators of 26 casinos and racinos across the U.S.; Penn Gaming announces groundbreaking for the lone Massachusetts slot parlor license. This is Penn's second project in New England as they opened the Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway in Bangor Maine in November of 2005 and was allowed to add table games in 2012.
Topics: Gaming, Blog, Incentive Marketing, loyalty program
Topics: Penn National Gaming, Plainville, Blog, loyalty program, Slots
With occasions like Earth Day and Mother’s Day on the horizon, the time is now to game plan an event that will separate your property from your competitors. The “Just Add Ice” – Orchid” is a distinctive and inspiring idea to brighten the day of your patrons.
Topics: Player Loyalty, Blog, Casino Giveaway, Casino Traffic, loyalty program
Topics: Blog, customer loyalty, Loyalty, loyalty program
Mohegan Sun, Wynn pitch eastern Massachusetts casino plans before gambling commission
BOSTON (AP) -- The two companies competing for the coveted license to operate the only resort casino in greater Boston delivered high-powered presentations to the state gambling commission on Wednesday, with both promising to be the superior choice to create jobs, generate tax revenue and attract tourists from around the world.
Mohegan Sun has applied to build a casino on land owned by Suffolk Downs in Revere, pending a Feb. 25 referendum, while Las Vegas casino operator Steve Wynn has proposed a casino along the Mystic River in Everett. Both locations lie just outside the city of Boston.
"We have the 'wow' that this market wants and what Massachusetts deserves," said Mitchell Etess, chief executive of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, during a 90-minute presentation that included charts, videos and architectural models.
Wynn, by contrast, offered a less glitzy and largely unscripted presentation that lasted less than one hour.
"I'm being hard-nosed today because today is not about theater, today is about how we get a destination resort up and running in Massachusetts," said Wynn, who openly mocked the Mohegan Sun proposal as a three-star resort compared to what he said would be a five-star operation if his company wins the license.
Wynn said the hotel rooms in the Everett resort would be nearly twice as large and far more luxurious that the competing proposal. He also sharply criticized Mohegan Sun's architect for a low-rise, "horizontal" design, as opposed to the 19-story high-rise tower he has proposed, saying a "vertical" development is more user friendly for guests — making it easier, for example, for room service to deliver hot breakfasts.
A spokesman for Mohegan Sun later said its primary hotel would be a four-star operation, while another, smaller hotel would be three-star.
Mohegan Sun's Revere-only plan emerged after an earlier proposal by Suffolk Downs, a 78-year-old thoroughbred racetrack, to develop a casino on the Boston-Revere border was rejected last November by voters in the East Boston neighborhood.
Etess acknowledged that the last few months had been a "whirlwind" for the company, which formed a partnership with Suffolk Downs after a failed attempt to develop a casino in the western Massachusetts town of Palmer.
Etess said that while Mohegan Sun has expanded its reach — opening the first casino in Pennsylvania under that state's gambling law — its roots were in the region where it opened its first facility in Connecticut 17 years ago.
"We have old-fashioned New England know-how and New England values," he said.
The Revere casino would be easily accessible by several major highways, public transportation and nearby Logan International Airport, Etess said. He also called the site "clean," an apparent reference to pollution at the former chemical plant where Wynn hopes to build, and predicted that the Mohegan Sun' casino could be up and running six months sooner than Wynn's and generate more annual tax revenue for Massachusetts.
Wynn, who has promised to pay for the cleanup of the Everett site, said his company would be the "worst nightmare" for Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, Connecticut's other casino operator, because it would siphon off revenue from table games that are not taxed in Connecticut.
"If Wynn Resorts is selected, we have only one interest, this casino in Massachusetts," Wynn said. We don't give a damn about Connecticut."
The meeting room at the Boston convention center was crowded with supporters of the two projects, including Suffolk Downs workers who stood and cheered loudly when Mohegan Sun officials repeated a promise to preserve racing at Suffolk Downs, which would operate as a separate entity from the casino.
MGM Resorts International, which has proposed a resort casino in downtown Springfield, was scheduled to make a presentation to the commission on Thursday. MGM is the only remaining applicant for the western Massachusetts casino license.
The panel has set a tentative date of May 30 for awarding the regional licenses.
Topics: Player Loyalty, Blog, loyalty program, Massachusetts Casino