Maryland Casino Revenue Hits Record $59M In April

The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency has released its latest casino figures for the state, revealing a record $58.9 million in revenue for April, reflecting a 1.6% improvement on the previous month.
Maryland has three casinos and breaking the figures down further, the state’s largest casino Maryland Live generated almost $46.6 million in April, while the Hollywood Casino Perryville took in $8.4 million, and the Casino at Ocean Downs nearly $4 million.
Despite the record overall figure of $58.9 million, there has been cause for concern as Maryland Live opened in June 2012, without which revenue at the state’s other two casinos was down by $3.69 million in April, or around 25% compared to the same month a year ago.
In addition, Maryland Live’s 4,217 slot machines generated $38.2 million in revenue, down $6.45 million from the month before. However, the casino added 122 table games for the first time on April 11th, which generated $8.4 million to produce an overall increase in revenue of $1.95 million compared to the month before.
Nevertheless, casino gambling would still seem to be on the increase in the US and according to a recent report by the American Gaming Association was up by 4.8% to $37.3 billion in 2012. Encouragingly, casino revenue growth in Maryland during the year was second only to Kansas, and future expansion of Maryland’s casino industry will receive a further boost on May 22nd, with the opening of the 558 slots and 10 table games Rocky Gap Casino.
A sixth casino licence is expected to be issued soon, with bids due on Friday for the Prince George’s casino license. Penn National Gaming Inc has said it intends to make a bid to build a gambling venue on the site, with the casino and racetrack business already operating 26 facilities in 18 states across the US.