By Sam Wroblewski 630wpro.com
The first of several planned casinos opened in Massachusetts Wednesday, owners of the Plainridge Park Casino cut the ribbon on what is expected to be the steep competition for gambling operations in Rhode Island.
The casino in Plainville sits within a 30 minute drive from Rhode Island’s only table gaming operation Twin River Casino and looks to keep gambling dollars within Massachusetts borders. While Plainridge opens its doors with only slot machines available to the public, table games will eventually be rolled out to complement its existing horse racing operations.
“We have about 1,250 devices, 1,500 seats, we have electronic table games: Roulette, Black Jack, Baccarat,” said Penn National Gaming CEO Tim Willmott.
Gaming competition between the two states is looking to become even more intense after votes in New Bedford approved a referendum to set up a new casino on the water front. Mayor Jon Mitchell believes his city’s new facility will be a draw to the route 24 corridor in Massachusetts.
“A lot of folks who live in Boston on the south side don’t travel through the city to get to the other side,” said Mitchell “So I think we’re going to draw a lot of folks from the southern suburbs of Boston and along the south shore of Boston as well.”
New Bedford still needs approval from the state to set up a gambling facility in the city.
Twin River has not taken the news of impending Massachusetts gaming lightly, and has recently worked to expand its operations to include more table game and a hotel to keep competitive. Additionally, the company also is in the midst of attempting relocate Newport Grand to Tiverton, just feet away from Massachusetts.
Former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth professor Dr. Clyde Barrow says so many facilities within such close proximity to one another will result in Rhode Island and Massachusetts residents “staying home” to gamble.
“The strategy [across the country] has become to hold your own gamblers at home […] unless you’re the sort of massive, mega-complex of the sort you would find in Connecticut,” said Barrow.
Barrow said Twin River’s push to upgrade its facilities will help keep it competitive with the encroaching competition.
“Now they will not be able to completely stop the out-flow of Massachusetts dollars, but they will be able to retain some of it simply because Plainridge does not have to capacity to accommodate all the Massachusetts gamblers who go to Twin River right now.”
