It was a grand day for the three Massachusetts casinos: On Jan. 31, Encore Boston Harbor, MGM Springfield, and Plainridge Park all opened their sports-betting parlors to much fanfare. The Raynham Park simulcasting center isn’t far behind, with plans to open a shiny new sportsbook with industry heavyweight Caesars Entertainment.
There’s one big player missing: Sterling Suffolk Racecourse, aka Suffolk Downs. The horse track operator might end up outflanking the big casinos by securing what could be the state’s most valuable retail sports-betting license.
The thoroughbreds stopped circling the track on the Boston-Revere line in 2019 for the last time, five years after the owners’ dream of building a casino there died when Wynn Resorts won the right to build Encore.
