Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/474784
When Penn National's Plainridge Park opens next spring, it will enjoy a gambling monopoly in Massachusetts that could last — at least in the east- ern half of the state — for two or three years, local officials and gambling industry experts say. MGM's planned Springfield casino is another two or three years off; plans for mega casinos in the Boston area and Southeastern Massachusetts face uncertainty and delays. Complicating it further is the effort to place a referendum on the November ballot that could potentially overturn the 2011 gambling expansion law that opened the door to Plainridge Park and other casino efforts. Regardless, businesses in and around Plainville are hoping to cash in on the arrival of this big, new gambling and entertainment attraction — finding opportunity in demand from free-spending gam- blers — in everything from dining to hotel rooms. Yet the biggest boon to local businesses may come not from gamblers passing through town, but all the construction workers needed to build the new slots complex, and later, the hundreds of employees who will staff it. Not to mention the millions in goods and ser- vices Penn National says Plainridge Park will buy each year from local businesses, from flowers and food to landscaping. "This is going to be one of the best things that 20 MetroWest495 Biz | May 2014 By ScoTT Van VoorhiS W ith Massachusetts seemingly ready to roll the dice, Plainville and the Interstate 495 south area are suddenly poised to become the state's de facto capital for Las Vegas-style gambling. Reverberations of Plainville casino P h o t o s / C o U R t E s y Local businesses around Plainville — experts say — stand to earn millions in spillover business from construction of Plainridge Park Casino, in terms of lodging, landscaping, shopping, dining and more. Businesses gear up for cash, competition