Encore Boston Harbor Strike Ends After 63 Days: What the New Deal Means for the Casino’s Poker Room

For nine weeks, getting to an Encore Boston Harbor poker game meant walking past a picket line. The poker room itself never stopped. Cards were dealt around the clock on all 36 tables. Around it, though, the resort was running on a reduced crew: company-run restaurants were shut, cocktail service was thin, and the union was asking customers not to come in at all.

That’s over now. On Thursday, November 5, 2026, more than 1,300 members of UNITE HERE Local 26 and Teamsters Local 25 voted to ratify a new contract with Wynn Resorts. They walked back in at about 6 a.m. the next morning, ending a 63-day strike that began on September 4. Card Player covered the settlement on November 10.

Here’s what happened, what it cost Encore in hard numbers, and what it actually means if you play cash games or tournaments in Everett.

Quick summary

• Strike length: 63 days (Sept 4 – Nov 5, 2026); workers back Nov 6
• Workers: 1,300+ housekeepers, cooks, servers, bartenders, slot attendants, warehouse and receiving staff
• Deal: five-year contract with raises, preserved health care and job security, per the unions. Full terms have not been published
• Poker room: stayed open 24/7 because dealers belong to separate unions
• Revenue hit: September GGR $46.1M, down 22.1% year on year and the lowest since February 2021
• Room today: 36 tables, NLH 1/3 to 10/25, PLO 2/2 to 25/25, daily tournaments

How the Strike Unfolded

The old contracts expired on August 31. Talks with Wynn had already broken down in August, and union members voted to authorize a walkout. On the morning of September 4, staff from almost every non-gaming department walked out. The unions said management had refused to bargain in good faith. Wynn kept the property open throughout.

The picket line ran 24 hours a day at the casino entrance, and the unions publicly urged a boycott. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu joined the picket line in October. At the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s October 22 meeting, its Investigations and Enforcement Bureau said Encore had closed all of its company-operated restaurants and that only vendor-run outlets were still serving.

The deal came together quickly at the end. On November 5, Wynn CEO Craig Billings told analysts on the Q3 earnings call that a framework was in place, and he called the strike a “modest headwind.” Members ratified the deal that evening.

What’s in the new contract?

Neither side has released the full document. According to the unions, it delivers raises that meet what they call the “Boston standard,” keeps health care in place, and adds job security language, which were their three core demands. Card Player describes it as a five-year agreement. Wynn’s statement said it was pleased to reach a deal that works for employees and for the resort’s long-term future. Exact hourly rates, scheduling rules and any automation clauses have not been made public. Treat any specific wage figures you see online with caution until a primary source confirms them.

Why the Poker Room Never Closed

Poker players were confused about this throughout the strike. The answer is simple: poker dealers and table games dealers are not in the bargaining units that went on strike. Local 26 and Local 25 represent hospitality, food and beverage, slot and logistics staff. Dealers belong to different unions, so they kept working, and the cash games and daily tournaments in The Loft carried on.

Still, “open” didn’t mean “normal.” Here’s what regulars ran into while the strike was on:

• Food and drink: with company restaurants shut and servers out, getting a meal or a drink at the table was slower and more limited. That matters in a 12-hour session.
• The picket line: some local players refused to cross out of solidarity, which thinned out the player pool. Others just found it uncomfortable. A smaller player pool means fewer games running and fewer weak players to win from.
• Hotel stays: housekeeping was among the striking groups, so anyone coming in for a tournament weekend saw reduced service.

All of that should return to normal now that the full team is back in the building.

The Damage in Numbers: Real Revenue Data

The most reliable picture comes from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC). Its September report, published October 20, covered the first full month of the strike.

Massachusetts casino gross gaming revenue: September 2025 vs September 2026

Casino	Sept 2025	Sept 2026	Change
Encore Boston Harbor	$59.1M	$46.1M	−22.1%
MGM Springfield	$22.2M	$22.0M	−1.2%
Plainridge Park Casino	$14.3M	$14.6M	+2.4%
State total	$95.7M	$82.7M	−13.6%

Look at the totals and one thing stands out. Massachusetts casinos lost about $13 million in gaming revenue year on year, and almost all of it came from Encore. The other two casinos were essentially flat. That’s strong evidence the drop was caused by the strike, not by a wider slowdown in the market. Encore’s share of state casino revenue fell from roughly 62% to about 56% in a single month.

Inside Encore’s September 2026 numbers

Metric	September 2026	Year-on-year
Slot revenue	$26.9M	−23.6%
Table game revenue	$19.1M	−19.8%
Slot coin-in (total wagered)	$354.4M (from $444.4M)	−20.3%
State gaming tax (25% of GGR)	$11.5M (from $14.8M)	−$3.3M

Wynn’s own quarterly results tell the same story at the corporate level:

Encore Boston Harbor, Wynn Resorts Q3 results

Metric	Q3 2025	Q3 2026	Change
Operating revenue	$211.8M	$194.7M	−8.1%
Adjusted property EBITDAR	$58.4M	$50.1M	−14.2%

One detail matters if you think about it like a poker player. Q3 only included 27 strike days, and all of them fell in September. October was struck from the 1st to the 31st. Billings may call it a modest headwind, but the October MGC report due later this month is likely to look worse than September. That’s the real scorecard.

A note on poker specifically: the MGC doesn’t publish poker rake as its own line in these monthly headline figures. So no public number tells us how the poker room itself did during the strike. The 19.8% fall in table game revenue is the closest proxy, and it covers blackjack, baccarat and everything else on the floor.

The Encore Poker Room Today: What You’re Walking Into

Room size matters for context. Encore opened in June 2019 with a huge poker footprint, and reports from that period put the peak at 74 tables. COVID closed the room in March 2020. When the casino reopened, it held poker back for nearly two years, citing space and market conditions. Poker returned on February 1, 2022 with just 12 tables. It has been growing back ever since.

Encore Boston Harbor poker room snapshot (November 2026)

Feature	Details
Tables	36, all with automatic shufflers
Location	The Loft, second-floor Mezzanine Level (park at Casino North)
Hours	24 hours, 7 days
No-Limit Hold’em	1/3 up to 10/25
Pot-Limit Omaha	2/2 up to 25/25
Tournaments	Several each week, plus periodic series
Promotions	Bad beat jackpot on raked Hold’em games, comp dollars on all games
Comfort	USB power at every seat, free Wi-Fi, 18 55-inch TVs, restrooms inside the room
Sign-up	Remote waitlist and self check-in through Poker Atlas

About the rake: Encore doesn’t list it on its website. When the room reopened in 2022, it drew criticism for taking 10% up to $10 per hand, even at 1/3. That was roughly double the $5 cap at Foxwoods’ lower-stakes games back then. We haven’t confirmed the current structure, so ask the floor before you sit down. At 1/3, a $10 cap versus a $5 cap is a big part of your expected win rate.

What the Settlement Means for Poker Players

1. A fuller, softer player pool

A boycott hurts poker more than other games. Slot players play against the house, so a missing slot player affects only the casino. A missing recreational poker player also makes the game tougher for everyone left at the table. With the picket line gone, the casual weekend crowd, many of them union households from greater Boston, has a reason to come back. Expect more 1/3 and 2/5 tables running in the evenings over the coming weeks.

2. Full service is back

Restaurants, cocktail service and housekeeping should be fully staffed again. If you avoided Encore for tournament weekends because of hotel service, that problem is gone.

3. Watch for “welcome back” promotions

Casinos coming out of a long labor dispute usually spend money to win customers back. Nothing poker-specific has been announced yet. Still, keep an eye on high-hand bonuses, bigger tournament guarantees and comp multipliers through the holiday season. The poker room’s Poker Atlas page and the Wynn Rewards app are the places to check.

4. The dealers’ contracts are a separate matter

This deal doesn’t cover dealers. Their unions negotiate on their own schedule. If you want to know whether a future dispute could hit the poker room directly, watch the dealer unions’ contract dates, not this agreement.

How This Compares With Other Casino Strikes

At 63 days, the Encore strike is one of the longest US casino walkouts in recent years. It falls just short of the 69-day strike at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in 2024, which also ended in a five-year contract. It was far longer than the 13-day walkout at Caesars Southern Indiana in 2025. The 2023 strike at Detroit’s three casinos ran a little over a month. The pattern is consistent: casinos stay open, revenue drops, and the settlement usually lands on a five-year term.

Final Take

For most of the strike, Encore Boston Harbor poker was a strange experience. The games were good and the dealers were working, but the resort around them was half-staffed. That’s now fixed. The more interesting question is how fast the crowd comes back. Watch the October MGC numbers due later this month to see how bad the bottom was. The November figures, published in December, will show how quickly Encore is recovering. For players, the practical advice is simple: check the current rake, sign up on Poker Atlas before you drive in, and expect busier evening games as the holidays approach.

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