UMass Donahue Institute

The economic impact of Plainridge Park Casino’s first year of operation went far beyond the 556 positions at the casino. Between the $17.8 million in new wages being spent in the economy, $19.1 million spent on vendors and organizations, and the $77.6 million in new revenue collected by various government entities, the majority of the 2,758 jobs created or supported by the casino were not actually on site. These positive impacts must be somewhat tempered by the estimated 340 jobs lost due to reallocations in patron spending, leading to a net impact of 2,417 jobs. This number would have been much lower were it not for the substantial amount of new revenue collected by the state, which ultimately had a larger economic impact than all other new activity. It also could have been much lower if not for the majority of patron spending coming from patrons who would otherwise have spent their money out-of-state.