The first full month of gambling at a full-scale casino yielded more than $6.7 million in tax revenue for Massachusetts and almost $27 million in gross revenue for MGM Springfield, the Gaming Commission said Monday.
Players wagered $190 million on MGM Springfield’s slot machines in September and while 90.45 percent of it was returned to players as winnings, MGM Springfield reported $18.15 million in gross slot revenue last month. The casino also counted $8.8 million in gross revenue from its table games in September for total monthly revenue of $26.95 million.
Full-scale casinos in Massachusetts are taxed at a rate of 25 percent of their gross gaming revenue and the monthly state tax haul from MGM in September was $6.74 million, the Gaming Commission said. MGM Springfield, which opened on Aug. 23, collected gaming revenue of roughly $9.46 million between its opening and the end of August.
Massachusetts collected another $7 million in tax revenue last month from the slots parlor at Plainridge Park Casino, where gamblers put $175.5 million on the line last month. The slots parlor in Plainville reported slots revenue of $14.32 million and a prize payout percentage of 91.84 last month, the commission said to the SHNS.
The state is entitled to more than $5.7 million of Plainridge’s September revenue in the form of state taxes intended for local aid and another $1.29 million for the Race Horse Development Fund. That works out to a total tax or assessment hit of just more than $7 million last month, according to the Gaming Commission. Plainridge is taxed on 49% of its gross gaming revenue, with 82 percent of the levy going to local aid and 18% to a fund set up with the goal of supporting horse racing, an industry that is struggling in Massachusetts.