Study: 90 percent of Plainridge customers also visited other casinos
Today researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who are conducting a multi-year, comprehensive study known as the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA), reported results of their first patron survey to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) at its meeting in Boston.
Along with a license plate survey, the patron survey was conducted in 2016 at Plainridge Park Casino (PPC), the state’s first casino, which opened in June 2015. Laurie Salame, senior lecturer at UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management, led the patron survey and is the lead author of this report.
Rachel Volberg, professor of epidemiology at UMass Amherst’s School of Public Health and Health Sciences and a lead SEIGMA researcher, says, “The survey is a tool that allows us to collect data from patrons about where they come from and how much they spend, which is important for understanding the economic impacts of the casino.”
Salame, Volberg and colleagues found that nearly 90 percent of PPC patrons had visited casinos in other states in the year prior to the opening of PPC with the majority, 72.3 percent, having visited casinos in Connecticut and 55.9 percent in Rhode Island. The majority of PPC patrons were from Massachusetts, with 11.4 percent from Plainville or nearby towns and another 66.5 percent from other Massachusetts communities. Overall, 19.2 percent of patrons were from outside the Commonwealth.
Read article: Study: 90 percent of Plainridge customers also visited other casinos
October 26, 2017
