Casinos: Bringing Jobs to Massachusetts

Unemployment Spike Continues

The national economic downturn, which has plagued all 50 states for the past several years, continues to batter Massachusetts’ economy.

Massachusetts unemployment rate reached 9.2 percent in April 2010, up from 8.8 percent in July 2009, according to data from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Adding Jobs and Resort Casinos

A resort-style casino will create thousands of new jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenues.

For example:

• over 19,000 people are employed by Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut;

• Massachusetts residents have wagered nearly $120 billion at New England's casinos and racinos since 1992. That spending has created about 7,000 jobs at the three state's casinos and racino

• Resort casinos provide a significant "multiplier effects," in that studies show that resort casinos will create non-casino private sector jobs in tourism, hospitality, and retail sectors;

• Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun employees’ pay averages $35,000–$45,000 a year, including health benefits; and

• A resort casino will create more than 1,000 jobs for every $100 million in gross gaming revenue, i.e., $400 million in GGR equals 4,000 jobs created.

Resort casinos in Massachusetts will create thousands of permanent, well-paying, jobs that include health benefits. Resort casinos will also create thousands of construction jobs, generate $400 million in new state and local tax revenues, and provide $1.3 billion in new, ongoing economic activity—while also preserving and enhancing over 7,000 acres of open space and protecting 2,300 existing jobs.

Help Us Grow the Massachusetts Economy 

Jobs created by resort-style casinos will do more than just lower our state unemployment rate, decrease welfare, and lessen crime. Resort-style casino jobs will also provide job training and new job skills for entry level and lesser-educated Massachusetts residents, while the resort casinos have been shown to increase home values in surrounding cities and towns.

Tell our state government leaders to support gaming expansion now.

Sign our petition now. Click here.

The Commonwealth Knows Gaming Can Help

Seventy-nine percent of Massachusetts residents believe a resort-style casino in the Commonwealth will create new jobs—and with good reason. Job growth at hotels, restaurants and businesses near the casinos further stimulate the economy and grow private sector jobs, providing additional tax revenues to our state, cities and towns.

Massachusetts deserves the same sort of high-paying jobs as our neighbors in Connecticut—and with expanded entertainment complexes, we can have them.

Read More:

UMass Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis: New England Gaming Research Project 2010 UPDATE

The Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth updated its New England casino patron origin and fiscal impact analysis for calendar year 2009. The update includes new patron origin and financial data for Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut; Twin River and Newport Grand Slots in Rhode Island; and new financial data for Hollywood Slots Hotel & Raceway in Bangor, Maine.

To download this resource, click here.

Labor Resource Center: Gaming in Massachusetts - Can Casinos Bring "Good Jobs" to the Commonwealth?

Report examines the quality of jobs in the United States gaming industry, with the goal of assessing the potential impact the creation of three resort-style casinos would have on Massachusetts. Among workers without a college education, gaming workers in casino hotels enjoy higher pay and more generous job benefits than workers in non-gaming jobs. Gaming workers are also more likely to receive employer-provided health insurance, especially those where premiums are paid at least partially by employers. The report analyzes 2007 proposed legislation to enable gaming in Massachusetts, and how it addressed wages, benefits, training, mentoring and childcare among other areas of worker protection.
To read executive summary, click here.
To download a PDF of entire resource, click here.

Spectrum Gaming Group: Projecting and Preparing for Potential Impact of Expanded Gaming on Commonwealth of Massachusetts

An independent research firm was engaged by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to analyze legislative proposals authorizing the creation of three resort-style casinos in the state, and to project potential impacts. The report found that three destination casinos could generate $1.23 billion to $1.78 billion in annual gross gaming revenue in the first year. Each casino would create an average of 4,377 direct jobs, with each direct job creating 0.5 jobs elsewhere in the local economy. Massachusetts casinos would add about $1 billion to the gross regional product of the Boston area and $2 billion to the gross regional product of Massachusetts. Each casino would also create approximately 3,000 direct construction jobs. Conventions and meetings centered at the casino would generate at least $7.2 million in annual spending at other local businesses.
To read the beginning of this report, click here.
To download this resource, click here.