Encore Boston Harbor scraps parking fees, high table game minimums

After five months, Encore Boston Harbor has decided to keep it local rather than imitate Las Vegas.

The $2.6 billion Everett resort casino killed its $50 table game minimums and now offers $15 table game minimums and dropped its parking fees for self parking, according to a report on masslive.com.

Brian Gullbrants, who became Encore’s new president in October after the departure of Robert DeSalvio, told the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Thursday that the Wynn Resorts property wants to be “a Boston casino in Boston.”

“The last thing we want to do is be a Vegas casino in Boston,” he said, as reported by Steph Solis of masslive.com. “We want to be Greater Boston’s hometown casino. And we want everyone to come and feel welcome and like they can have a great time there, whether they are playing or not playing.”

Some of the smaller fees for buses and water shuttles, which cost $7 a trip, will remain in place, Gullbrants said.

The casino opened in June with 3,158 slot machines, 143 table games and 88 poker tables.

Analysts have been critical of Encore Boston Harbor as well as MGM Springfield in western Massachusetts for their underperformance against expectations.

In Wynn Resorts’ earnings call earlier this month, company executives said that the property is still ramping up after the June opening and that the team is still learning what features click with its customer base.

Contact Tony Garcia at tgarcia@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307. Follow @TonyGLVNews on Twitter.