• Encore Casino Opening Everett Ma 02149
• Grand Opening Encore Casino Everett Ma
• Encore Casino Opening Everett Ma

1. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The new Encore Boston Harbor resort and casino is officially opening in Everett this weekend.At a press conference on Wednesday, officials said that there would be lots of transportation options for gamblers coming to the casino.
2. We will now be the door to the city of everett. Matt: after looming across the skyline for years, the boston harbor encore casino finally opened its doors today, as thousands lined up to be the.
3. The news comes just one week after the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) voted 5-0 on June 23 to accept the opening procedures for its casino licensees, including Encore. Casinos in Massachusetts will be opening in Phase 3 of Gov. Charlie Baker’s re-opening plan, and that will come no sooner than July 6.

Pandemic closing marks rough first year for Encore

By JOSH RESNEK

The Encore Casino and Hotel in Everett celebrated its first anniversary last week; its huge polished brass and glass front doors closed tightly since March 15.

The casino is set to open at 10 a.m. Encore Boston Harbor President Robert DeSalvio says the casino will be offering a range of transportation options to ease congestion, including water.

This was not the way the first anniversary was supposed to be.

Since March 15, the world has been turned upside down by the pandemic – and one of its victims, early on, is the gaming business and especially Everett’s casino and hotel.

The future of our casino and hotel remains unknown at the moment.

It is impossible to predict what the outcome will be on business for the casino and hotel as a result of the pandemic.

The questions about the casino and hotel’s future goes beyond the pandemic, however.

The casino wasn’t working right from the beginning.
It never lived up to what it was supposed to be from the start. Built to function like a Babe Ruth that was likely to win the home run crown, it was batting only .250 when it closed down. As a business, the casino’s short life span featured spotty numbers, smaller crowds, larger expenses, more regulation and not a dime of profit since the doors swung open in late June 2019.

Then the doors shut. The entrance to the casino and hotel was blocked with cement stanchions behind which stood a long row of chain link fencing.

Encore Casino Opening Everett Ma 02149

The ultimate indignity standing by the blocked front entrance – a smaller portable neon sign announcing to the many thousands who drive past the casino everyday: CLOSED.

The Encore was to have been Steve Wynn’s crowning achievement in New England. His strategy was to build it big, and make it luxurious, to have it appear like his world famous Las Vegas and Macao properties in every way.

But it never fit in.

The architecture is anti-Boston.
Its location across from huge industrial sites offsets the grandeur of being on the Mystic River.
After spending tens of millions on road improvements, there is no traffic to speak of clogging the roads rushing every day to the casino.

It never took off quite as expected.

It has come to reflect the wrong project in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A very costly business investment, indeed.

Where it is headed is difficult to imagine as the Encore prepares to reopen.

Wynn Resorts spent $2.6 billion to build the place, running for nine months without a profit and then the doors closed shutting off completely the modest income it was generating.

Tis a harsh reality, indeed.

For the city of Everett and our mayor, the closed casino represents economic and political catastrophe.

The economic failure of the casino and hotel to live up to its expectations is having a short term detrimental effect on the city budget.

Politically, this is the mayor’s baby. He owns it. He was Steve Wynn’s buddy. All kinds of deals were made by all kinds of lawyers, lobbyists, real estatenics, former governors, a Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner, a gangster, the FBI and the State Police to have this project land in Everett.

In the end, the license got granted to Wynn Resorts only when they paid a $35 million fine two days before the place opened for a litany of lies and fabrications to the FBI, the State Police and to the MGC.

The land sale itself and subsequent lawsuits implicated the mayor in alleged illegal activity.

Which he denies.
That was then.
This is now.
The Encore is not paying its bills to the city in a timely fashion. Never has, likely never will.
Now the doors are opening again.

Instead of opening wide, they are remaining half closed. You can’t run a successful casino half-closed with gamblers wearing masks and socially distancing at the same time.

Can you imagine having four or five hearty drinks and trying to do that!
All kinds of limitations have been placed upon Encore to limit crowd size. We all know the rest of the things the virus has erased inside the casino – card games, roulette, craps and on and on.

Who exactly is going to come to Encore and for what? What is the draw?

Slots aren’t the draw. Never have been. Never will be.

Without tourists coming to Boston in droves, Encore will remain open but mostly out of business for many weeks and months to come.

It is hard to imagine. It is impossible to believe.

The Encore, believed to be the greatest business achievement in the city’s history, is basically a bust…right now.

Maybe everything turns around.

Perhaps 4,000 employees laid off are hired back.
Maybe the mayor can rejoice with all of us when this happens.
It ain’t gonna happen, as we say in New England.

Right now, the city’s economic savior has become an economic Albatross.

Encore Boston Harbor shared some good news and some bad news on Monday afternoon – stating they would look to begin re-opening procedures no sooner than July 6, but also that they would have to furlough up to 3,000 employees to be able to open this summer.

The news comes just one week after the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) voted 5-0 on June 23 to accept the opening procedures for its casino licensees, including Encore. Casinos in Massachusetts will be opening in Phase 3 of Gov. Charlie Baker’s re-opening plan, and that will come no sooner than July 6. The casino plans to re-open the casino gaming floor, and supporting food and beverage outlets around the casino – though both will be at a much smaller capacity due to social distancing restrictions.

There will be no craps games, roulette games, poker games, poker rooms, and the numbers of slots will be reduced. While about 1,500 to 2,000 workers on the rolls will return for trainings and guidelines about opening that portion of the casino resort, another 3,000 will have to be furloughed.

“Pending final approval, Encore Boston Harbor plans to re-open the casino gaming area and supporting food and beverage outlets around the casino,” read a statement from the casino. “It also plans to open the hotel on a limited basis. When it re-opens, Encore Boston Harbor will bring back its employees in a thoughtful and measured protocol. Some employees working in the re-opened amenities and restaurants will return to work. Employees, who worked in areas for which a re-opening date is uncertain due to current restrictions, are being placed on furlough until further notice.”

Already, approximately 11 percent of the Encore workforce had been placed on furlough June 1. Prior to that – since the voluntary closing of the resort on March 15, Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox had made the decision to continue paying all employees and tipped employees. That was extended through the end of May, though properties at Las Vegas and Macau opened to the public and Encore Boston Harbor remained closed.

Grand Opening Encore Casino Everett Ma

Encore had come up with an extensive health and safety program in May that was developed in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University – and was also used at their other properties. Encore said it would use that as a road map, as well as the new guidelines from the MGC passed last week.

“In addition to the previously released Health and Safety Program, Encore Boston Harbor supports and will adhere to the additional directives aimed to reduce the risk to public health set forth by the MGC, including reductions in available gaming capacity,” read the statement. “As a result, the resort will re-open with amenities appropriate to the new rules and in support of the anticipated number of guests.”

The gaming industry has been a big question mark as COVID-19 restrictions lift and operators from China to Las Vegas to Everett wonder if customers will return in the numbers that were previously hosted. This has been often pondered in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings from Wynn Resorts over the several months.

Encore officials said while many employees will be furloughed, it doesn’t mean their jobs are lost. They will be brought back thoughtfully, he said, as time goes by and restaurants, nightclubs and the full hotel can open.

Mayor Carlo DeMaria said he had confidence the casino would make good in rehiring all of the furloughed employees once the casino is up and running – and more areas are safe to open to the public.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, Encore has made a good-faith effort to keep employees on the payroll with full benefits,” he said. “While it is unfortunate that they have to furlough many employees because they have generated zero revenue, I’m optimistic that once the casino re-opens they will be rehired.”

City Councilor Michael McLaughlin – who represents the area – said it shows no one, not even Encore, is immune to COVID-19.

Encore Casino Opening Everett Ma

“Hearing that 3,000 of those long promised and dreamed of careers have been furloughed is not pleasant news,” he said. “The time is now to stand up and work together to help regain our careers and businesses that call Everett home. I am sure for the 3,000 workers furloughed this week this news doesn’t come lightly to you and your families. I hope that we all can come together to support the families across our region that have negatively been hurt by this unfortunate situation.”