It’s less than six months since the Plainridge Park Casino resort opened to the public and the signs so far are not very encouraging. The casino opened amidst a lot of publicity back in June 2015 and in doing so became the first casino to operate in the state of Massachusetts. Gaming analysts had predicted a lot of success for the casino, as the casino had full control over the market and its competition in the Wynn Everett and MGM Springfield casinos were only expected to open in 2018.

Plainridge Park casino owners were told by market analysts that the casino would bring in close to $300 million during the first 12 months and even if a market slump was to occur, the casino would bring in a minimum of $210 million. The grand opening in June saw over 10,000 customers rush to the gaming floor but there were some who believed that the success of the Plainville casino could only be gauged after several months.

The casino hasn’t been able to sustain any momentum so far as the number of customers has declined and so has the revenue. Massachusetts state gaming officials recently announced that they had dropped their annual revenue estimates to $160 million per year as the Plainridge casino has lost a lot of business to the Twin River casino in Rhode Island, which has reported a revenue increase of around $35 million this year.

A number of Massachusetts gamblers have stated that they preferred to travel out of state and visit the Twin River Casino because it was a lot bigger than the Plainridge Park facility and gave them a better casino experience. Twin River is less than a half hour drive away from Plainville, Ma. The Plainridge Casino has a total of 1,250 slot machines and animated electronic tables that function like slots but is not allowed to offer true table games based on the restrictions imposed by the Massachusetts state gaming commission. Rather than a casino license, the race track was granted a license to open a “slots parlor”.

In a statement, Richard McGowan, Boston college professor and gambling analyst said “A slots parlor — that just doesn’t cut it anymore. Plainridge is going after 60-year-olds, 70-year-olds, 80-year-olds. It’s a nice little crowd to go after, but it’s certainly limited.” Just a half a mile away from the Plainridge Park casino is a huge billboard promoting the Twin River casino in Rhode Island.

Plainridge Park Casino owners have played down the drop in revenues stating that they expected a slowdown during the holiday season and believe that things will start to pick up once again in the New Year. The state gaming commission is yet to figure out the exact reasons as to why the revenue is a lot lower than what gaming analysts had earlier predicted.