Social and Economic Impacts of Plainridge Park Casino: 2018
Report to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission & the Massachusetts Department of Public Health
November 2019
In September 2018, a comprehensive report, Social and Economic Impacts of Expanded Gambling in Massachusetts: 2018 (SEIGMA Research Team, 2018), was produced that described both the regional and statewide impacts of expanded gambling in Massachusetts as of mid-2018. The present report is an extraction of information from that report specific to the impacts of the construction and operation of Plainridge Park Casino (PPC). In general, it can be said that the impacts of PPC to date have largely been positive, with clear positive economic impacts along with relatively minor negative social impacts.
The report is an in-depth and comprehensive investigation of the impacts of introducing casino gambling. Findings also indicated the absence of negative impacts on gambling behavior, including rates of problem gambling. The lack of impact on the problem gambling rate was likely the result of the already high rate of casino gambling that existed in the Plainville area prior to the opening of the slot parlor and related to the close proximity of Rhode Island and Connecticut casinos in operation since the early 1990s.
Read the Executive Summary and Summary of Impacts as well as the entire report.
