MGM Springfield reached a settlement agreement with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office this week on employee wage violations. The settlement includes a payment of $461,587 to MGM Springfield employees and $6.3 million in penalties to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
MGM Springfield opened its doors in August 2018. Within its first few months of operation, the Attorney General’s fair labor division started receiving complaints from the casino’s employees regarding unfair wage practices. The AG’s office started an investigation in October 2018, ultimately identifying several wage improprieties.
Employee complaints included instances of late wages, managers illegally participating in pooled tips, required work through meal breaks without pay, failure to pay earned sick time, and underpayment for overtime work. Per the conditions of the settlement, reached Wednesday, MGM neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing.
According to the AG’s office, the issues affected more than 2,000 employees. Depending on the circumstances, employees will receive payments of between $50 and $18,000. Most of those involved were hourly workers such as bartenders, waitstaff, dealers, and security.
“MGM Springfield’s failure to provide its employees, especially services workers earning an hourly wage and relying on tips, with their full wages and benefits made it more difficult for these employees to take care of themselves and their families," said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. "My offices will continue to hold accountable those who violate our wage and hour laws.”
MGM Springfield will also be required to administer a compliance program for the next two years, which will include training and third-party wage and hour audits.
Springfield’s Start-Up Issues
This isn’t MGM Springfield’s first run-in with state regulators. This summer, the casino was fined $20,000 for illegally offering wagers on two in-state college basketball games back in February. Massachusetts, like many other states, does not allow sports bets on in-state college games. This issue was self-reported and was due to a college location coding error – apparently a common error for new sports betting jurisdictions.
MGM Springfield became the second Bay State casino to receive a retail sports betting license late last year. BetMGM was approved as MGM Springfield’s online sportsbook in December and launched its mobile services there in March.
