MGM National Harbor was a driving force behind this positive result, generating $71.6m, which was a 5.5% annual increase. It was only one of two casinos to report an uptick in revenue, along with the Horseshoe Casino which posted $16.3m in revenue, a 4.2% year-on-year increase.
The other four casinos – Live Casino & Hotel, Ocean Downs Casino, Hollywood Casino and Rocky Gap Casino, all showed marginal revenue declines.
Most of the gaming contributions made by these six casinos went into the state’s Education Trust Fund ($49.2m of the $67.7m generated). Casino gaming revenue also went to the logistical support of communities and jurisdictions in which the casinos are located.
Other beneficiaries are the horseracing industry of Maryland and companies run by majority BME or women-owned owners.
The revenues generated by Maryland’s brick-and-mortar casinos only tell part of the story, as the Free State reported a record 16.5 million geolocation transactions over Thanksgiving weekend. These transaction numbers signal a huge boost in sports betting, which the state Governor Larry Hogan believes will drive tax revenue for the state’s Education Fund.
Maryland online sports betting launched earlier this month, following Hogan publicly urging for its “accelerated launch.” The state’s Thanksgiving geolocation data was almost double that of its neigbour Virginia and was four times larger than that of the similarly sized Colorado.
Although it is too early for Maryland to have produced any data on sports betting revenue, these statistics indicate that online betting will add greatly to the state’s gambling revenue and taxes derived from gambling.
