Maryland Casinos Continue Record Revenue Roll
Maryland’s poker market is one of the nation’s fastest growing.
These days, Maryland has a larger gambling market than Iowa and Michigan. Ohio’s market is roughly the same size while only Pennsylvania beats them with a market worth about double the Maryland’s. According to figures released by gaming regulators, a record-breaking year continued for Maryland casinos with poker rooms generating a $3.6 million in revenue from their tables in September. In comparison to September 2016, that’s a 33 percent increase.
Poker rooms have raked $33.5 million in the first nine months of the year while the state record for poker revenue was set back in January at $3.92 million which is also a 33 percent year-over-year gain. The state has six casinos but two of them don’t offer poker. MGM Harbour led the way with $1.7 million poker revenue and then Maryland Live! followed with $1.4 million. Horseshoe Casino Baltimore generated a combined $436,000 and Hollywood Casino Perryville generated $94,000 during the month. Maryland Live! has the largest poker room in the state with 52 tables, followed by $1,6 billion MGM with 39 tables. Horseshoe has 25 while Hollywood has 8 tables.
Back in September 2016, Maryland Live! had $2 million revenue so apparently the MGM Casino had an impact. MGM opened in December and has significantly grown the poker market. The fact this casino is approximately 10 miles from Washington D.C., it’s proving to be an advantage in the summer tourist season when tourists flock to the USA capital. Back in June, MGM held almost 40 percent of the state’s $130.5bn casino revenue, leaving its competitors fighting over the scraps.
Players lost, or were raked a total of $134.5 million at all six casinos of the state. That was an increase of $37.4 million in comparison to the September 2016 figure of $97.1 million. That’s a 38.6 percent increase. But if we exclude MGM from a year-to-year comparison, the casino revenue in September decreased by 12.3 percent or $11.9 million. So MGM has definitely helped the Maryland gaming market but also pinched out a piece of existing revenues for its competitors.
Record revenue from all six casinos was set at $141.2 million in March this year.
