THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, JunE 5, 2026 Page 3 Everett Offi cials Press Encore on Local Spending, Entertainment Before License Renewal By Neil Zolot T he City Council renewed the innholder’s license for the Encore Boston Harbor casino, despite expressing some dissatisfaction with how it’s being fulfi lled, at their meeting on Tuesday, May 26. “As a Council we have no connection with you,” now former Councillor-at-Large Wayne Matewsky told attending Encore Executive Director of Government Relations Eileen McAnneny. “It’s like you’re a separate city. The people of Everett thought we’d get a bigger bang out of this. I thought we’d get more.” He specifi ed a concern over the lack of entertainment or restaurants in the casino for people not interested in gambling. “When are you going to bring events in?” he asked. “We thought we’d have great entertainment, but that was fi ve years ago. If you go now there’s no entertainment. There’s nothing I know of for people not interested in gambling.” McAnneny answered that there were plans to have high-profile entertainment, but local businesses also off ering live entertainment objected, and Encore was required to sign an agreement prohibiting them from doing so. “We are not able to have live entertainment,” she said. City Council President Stephanie Smith questioned the amount of money the casino is spending on services that are provided or could be provided by local vendors and/or to promote local businesses. “We have multiple food businesses in the city; what can we do to bring them customers from outside the city?” she asked. “I’d like to see eff ort to bring people into the city and not spend their money just in the casino.” After the meeting, she told The Advocate,” They’re supposed to be spending $50,000 in promotional gift cards to Everett businesses so casino patrons will spend their money in the City, but what they’re doing is buying gifts cards for businesses in the casino. Those in-house gift cards don’t help businesses in Everett.” She also feels Encore is not sponsoring enough local cultural events and having 30% of the businesses inside the casino being from Everett is low. In discussion, McAnneny told her there are 567 Everett residents working in the casino, which represents 17% of their workforce, with 76 in management or supervisory positions. She also said Everett businesses in the casino pay rent. Smith countered, “Our loLICENSE RENEWAL | SEE PAGE 10 Mass for Everett High and Vocational Class of ‘78 June 7 at OLG n Sunday, June 7th, the Everett Class of 1978 will be sponsoring the 9:30 AM Mass at Our Lady of Grace (OLG) in memory of all our deO ceased classmates of Everett High and the Everett Vocational High School. OLG is located on Nichols St. on the Everett/Chelsea line. “WE’RE STILL HERE!” Since 1947 MALDEN AUTO BODY Book online: Maldenauto.com 49 Robin St., Everett, MA 617-389-3030 * Maldenab@yahoo.com Over 79 years of exceptional service! Massone Family Owned & Operated SABATINO/MASTROCOLA INSURANCE AGENCY 519 BROADWAY EVERETT, MA 02149 Auto * Home * Boat * Renter * Condo * Life * Multi-Policy Discounts * Commercial 10% Discounts * Registry Service Also Available PHONE: (617) 387-7466 FAX: (617) 381-9186 Visit us online at: WWW.SABATINO-INS.COM
4 Publizr Home