Encore shoots down sale rumors

Encore Boston Casino on March 14, 2020. (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Tells employees they are all in on the casino

By JOSH RESNEK

The Encore Boston Harbor Casino and Hotel are not for sale, according to the top executive of the Everett business.

“I want to assure you that our company has not engaged in any conversations about the sale of the property,” Brian Gullbrants, President of Encore Boston Harbor, wrote to employees.

His comments were in response to a Leader Herald story indicating the facility is up for sale, that the price is $800 million, and that Encore is hiring a broker to make it happen.

The Leader Herald sourced a major player in the industry who was apparently offered the facility, but who allegedly declined.

A second industry source made the same claims to the Leader Herald several weeks ago.

In 2019, before that, and after, there have been more than several stories in the Boston press that the facility was for sale. In one such story, it was reported by the Boston Globe shortly before the casino opened that MGM was look-ing to buy the casino.

That sale never materialized.

The casino has faced softer earnings than expected from the casino and the hotel since opening in June, 2019.

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Wynn ouster, pandemic turned tide on Encore

By JOSH RESNEK

The casino gambling business is all about the ability to generate enormous amounts of cash from gambling and benefiting from the travel business with hotels.

It is a simple, time-worn, tried, and true matrix.

Wynn Resorts is the world’s leading champion of casino gaming.

It’s five-star hotels are truly among the world’s great travel industry wonders.

The five-star hotel and casino in Everett has never lived up to the early expectations that Wynn founder Steve Wynn had for the site.

Wynn believed Encore in Everett would be his piece de resistance, the crowning touch to his spreading gambling empire, as well as another rung on his high-end hotel ladder.

The problem with gangster interests in the land site caused a great deal of negative chatter about the project.

The license not delivered to Encore until it had paid a $35 million fine to the state for “wrongdoing” several days before the place opened hurt the integrity of the project and affected as well the integrity of the state’s gaming commission and everyone involved. – lawyers, investigators, the State Police, and the FBI.

A series of lawsuits are now ongoing and very much active and related directly to the Encore license award as the suitable party by MGC.

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