Three weeks into the strike at Encore Boston Harbor, the casino’s regulars are arguing with each other. The Facebook group Losing at Encore, which exists to share slot tips and free-play offers and has nothing to do with the casino or the union, has become the place where the people who miss the place work out whether to cross the picket line, and the administrators have started shutting off comments to keep the peace.
What the regulars are saying
The most common post is a question: is the strike still on. It is. The union has not announced a settlement, and Encore has not announced one either. One member wrote that a friend at a Boston television station told her the strike could go on for months, and that the union is asking for $39 an hour for every job regardless of what it is. We have not been able to confirm that figure with the union and it should be read as one member’s account. Another member wrote that for people who cannot cross a picket line in good conscience and who like Encore, it is tough, and that she wishes the two sides would go back to the table.
Some have crossed. One group member wrote that she drove by, did not go in, and did not think the picket looked very professional. Another wrote that a promise to a dead mother overrides the union. A member who has been posting group welcomes and giveaway reminders was accused of a conflict of interest for shutting down strike arguments, and answered that nobody in the group is affiliated with anything.
The other current in the group is disappointment that predates the strike. A longtime player wrote that Encore is not the giving place it was when it opened in 2019: the poker room has shrunk from 75 tables to a fraction of that, the buffet is gone, the blackjack tournaments are gone, and two of the restaurants have closed. Another wrote that Encore has the worst return to player in the Northeast and that she stopped going two years ago. Several members say they have been driving to the Nash casino in Nashua instead and finding newer slots and a friendlier floor.
What that means for the strike
The regulars’ complaints are the strike’s context. Wynn has said, in the figure it circulated this month, that the average striking worker earns $96,000 a year in wages and benefits; the union says the number is padded. We covered the state of play in our week-two report: the Boston, Everett and Somerville city councils have all passed resolutions supporting the workers, and there have been no talks. A casino that its own best customers describe as smaller, tighter and less generous than it was at opening is one that has already been cutting, and the workers on the sidewalk are the part of the cutting that can picket.
Encore has not said what the strike is costing it. The state Gaming Commission’s monthly revenue report for September, due in mid-October, will be the first public number.