Short term a disaster, casino hours slashes
By JOSH RESNEK
The closure of the Encore Hotel last Friday set a disturbing tone for Everett’s largest generator of cash.
Without the hotel open and fully occupied, the city stands to lose $5 million in excise tax- es that the city was depending upon.
The $30 million a year in lieu of taxes the company pays to the city is also a question mark if business is reduced and crowd restrictions remain because of the pandemic.
It remains unknown whether or not the city has collected at least $10 million of that yearly payment that was long overdue.
The short term is a disaster for the casino and hotel.
The longer-term, what might be happening once there is a vaccine and society has tamed the virus and returned to a semblance of normalcy, looks much better for the casino and hotel.
That may be another year away or more.
The hotel shut down months back but re-opened recently. It has been operating at reduced days and severely reduced occupancy for the past 8 months before shutting down completely, again.
Also, as we reported last week, the casino has reduced its hours of operation substantially is another knife in the heart of this giant commercial venture that was meant to pave the way for Everett’s financial stability for decades to come.
The casino will be open Monday thru Thursday from 12 pm to 9 pm. Friday thru Sunday hours are from 9 am to 9 pm.
Much worse is the announcement by company officials that 1,000 Encore employees are being laid off this week.
Wynn Resorts reported horrific earnings numbers for the past quarter, down 77% from the same quarter last year.
In Macau, which is the company’s cash cow, the outlook is grim, according to Matt Maddox, Wynn Resorts CEO.
There is simply not much traffic coming to the Wynn casino and hotel operations in Macau, which is 35 miles from Hong Kong.
Maddox reported that the appetite for junkets – larger groups of gamblers coming to the casino has dropped almost entirely.
At the same time, large groups of gamblers have not materialized, even during the recent holiday period celebrated in China.
Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria believed the casino to be his crowning achievement, and it was when it opened.
It is anything but a crowning achievement right now, and with its massive payments due to the city and nothing coming in, it now represents the city’s biggest liability moving forward.