Inside America’s Casinos – Stop #2: Encore Boston Harbor

Join CDC Gaming as we embark upon a road trip Inside America’s Casinos. For our second stop, we visit Encore Boston Harbor.

Once I finished my business in the hustle and bustle of New York, or to be more exact, Queens and the Bronx, the city’s boroughs that are bracing themselves to become casino hubs, it was time to head up north.

On the early-morning train going out of Manhattan, I was looking at my notes, trying to unbundle all the impressions and thoughts from the sites I’d just visited. At that point, I started to realize that casinos aren’t just standalone venues that live in isolation. They’re dynamic, living organisms that exist in networks — geographical, cultural, and psychological. And when trying to compare New York City to Boston, the two couldn’t be more different on all these criteria.

So as I started making my way up the Northeast Corridor, I was excited to see what this different energy would bring. Because energy, I’ve learned, changes the gaming experience completely.

Why Boston next?

My road trip covered over 20 casinos in six states in the Northeast, all closer to New York than Massachusetts. So why go all the way up to Boston as my second stop? Well, Boston isn’t just another stop; it’s also a relatively new entrant to the casino conversation. With its dense history and respectful pace, Boston doesn’t rush into anything and gambling is no exception.

It’s an affluent region with nearly seven million people that has traditionally resisted gambling, rooted in 17th-century Puritan statutes that defined gambling as “idleness.” There, a casino won’t be an extension of the city’s energy, as I found it to be in New York.

A casino across the parking lot from the Mets’ stadium sounded a lot more natural than a casino across the river from the campuses of Harvard and MIT. And that made me curious.

The Encore lowdown: Late to the party, even by MA terms

The modern era of gambling kicked off in Massachusetts with the Expanded Gaming Act of 2011, signed into law by then-governor Deval Patrick. Legislation created the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) to oversee licensing and regulation. It paved the way for four licenses (three resort casinos and one slot-only facility) separated by three regions: A (Eastern MA), B (Western MA), and C (Southeastern MA).

The road to get to the opening of the Encore Boston Harbor casino wasn’t an easy one. The project won the only license in Region A in 2014, following a battle against Mohegan Sun, which proposed a casino at Suffolk Downs racetrack. The former industrial site had to undergo an extensive environmental cleanup before construction could begin. The casino eventually opened its doors on June 23, 2019, following Plainbridge Park Casino (a slots-only racino) and MGM Springfield, which opened in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

First impressions – a tribute to Boston’s industrial past

As I approached the harbor, I could see the Encore from a distance, but what struck me first wasn’t the building; it was everything around it. The entire area still looks like an old industrial zone stuck in the past, trying hard to regenerate. The 33-acre stretch of land was once a chemical plant that was closed to the public for decades due to contamination.

Before construction of the glass tower and luxury resort could begin, 1.5 billion tons of contaminated soil had to be removed from the site, adding a $68 million price tag to the $2.6 billion project before the first brick was laid.

The resort is finished, polished, luxurious, complete. But the neighborhood still looks like it’s trying to catch up with the casino. Even though I was standing on the newly built waterfront, I still felt a bit of that bleak history under my feet. I got a sense that this isn’t the final version of the place. Then it was time to go inside.

From Wynn to Encore, a name change to protect a brand

I got the first reminder that gambling cultures are unique before even walking through the casino doors. Remembering Las Vegas Boulevard, where Steve Wynn’s legacy is present at every corner, I told the doorman who greeted me, “I can’t wait to visit the only Wynn casino in the U.S. outside of Nevada.”

He smiled politely, but assertively corrected me. “We are the Encore, not the Wynn, but you weren’t that far off,” probably referring to MGC’s 2018 probe into the sexual-misconduct allegations made against Steve Wynn at the time. That ended with his leaving Wynn Resorts and the project changing its name from Wynn Boston Harbor to Encore Boston Harbor.

Lots of gaming space

I expected to find a busy casino, given it’s the only one in the area. And I don’t mean only volumes of gamblers and guests, I mean an energy that transpires in a busy casino. But the first thing I noticed when stepping into Encore Boston Harbor wasn’t the noise, chaos, density, or constant movement. It was space and lots of it. I didn’t bump into people at the Encore Boston Harbor; I didn’t get stuck in corners. Everything about this place’s design seems to flow and keep you moving.

Then, the numbers started making sense to me. We’re talking one of the largest gaming floors in the region, 210,000 square feet of elegant, relaxed, and non-pushed gambling. Over 2,800 slots are arranged in near-perfect rows, most on colorful red-toned carpet. Nearly 200 table games are situated in mostly separate areas, with brighter carpets and walls and more lighting. The sportsbook is round and inviting, which I found much nicer than those sectioned off in separate halls.

Mid-roller options

The main floor of the casino was buzzing with players in both slot and table-game areas. The high-limit/high-roller rooms were situated on the wings of the main floor. But I also noticed some beautifully designed areas that were separate and quiet, which, although they didn’t have any distinct high-limit games, still gave me a chance to relax and play for stakes that were a bit over par.

Boston gambles differently

While New York’s casinos gave me a feeling of urgency, players around me seemed to be chasing something. I felt that everybody was in a hurry to conquer the next slot or blackjack table. Boston didn’t have a luxury casino culture like that offered by the Encore before 2019. I asked fellow players where they were from and found a mix of locals and visitors from Greater Boston/Worcester, but I also met people from Western MA and the Providence area. The resort, with a footprint of nearly 3 million square feet, includes a 27-story hotel with 671 rooms.

I saw more serious high-stakes players at tables (especially Asian card games) and social groups of friends having loud fun around blackjack tables. But common to most people was that here in Boston, everything seemed more relaxed. Conversations between players linger, drinks take longer to finish, and people were happy to talk to me, show me around, and answer my questions. I even noticed friendly roulette dealers explaining to a couple how to play before dropping the ball, while other players at the table just waited patiently.

Leaving Encore Boston Harbor

I didn’t feel like leaving, but it was getting late, and I still had to drive to Springfield that night. So I exited the Encore the same way I entered, but slower this time, as I was taking a moment to look beyond the resort itself. The area is still developing, with a mix of older industrial sites that haven’t yet caught up with the regeneration sparked by the luxury $260 billion project next door.

Boston is known more for history, education, and science than for games of chance. And similar to its new gaming culture, its casino is still forming its own identity, which, although friendly and welcoming, still feels a bit separate from Boston’s identity, at least for now. But driving away from a site that had been closed for centuries due to contamination and now houses one of the region’s most luxurious casino resorts, I realized that change takes time and it’s sure worth the wait.