Maryland Casinos Up 11% to $97.1M in September

The state of Maryland’s casino market last posted a contraction in revenues back in November 2015 when year-on-year business fell my a minimal 0.47% to $89.74 million. Since then, business has continued to boom, and September 2016 was no exception with the states five casinos generating $97.1 million last month, a solid 11% higher than the $87.5 million posted in September 2015.
From last month’s tally, table games reported a 27% improvement in revenues to $35.4m, while slots also were higher, albeit by a modest 3.6% to $61.7m. The one slight fly in the ointment, however, was the fact revenues fell short of the $100m mark for only the second time in six months.
Leading the Free State’s casino market in September was its biggest venue, Maryland Live, whose 3,907 slots and 206 table games produced 8.8% more revenues at $53.9m. Next was the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore up an impressive 21.6% to $26.9m, with table games rising by 38% to $12.5m, and accounting for much of the gains. Commenting on the result, Erin Chamberlin, Horseshoe Baltimore’s general manager, stated:
“We’re very pleased with our September performance, having posted the largest percentage of year-over-year revenue growth of any casino in Maryland during the period.”
All the state’s other casinos also posted year-on-year growth, with Hollywood Casino Perryville up 4.6% to $5.92m; Ocean Downs up 2.9% to $5.87m; and Rocky Gap up 14.9% to $4.4m.
Looking ahead to future developments, Maryland Live is currently in the middle of an expansion project to turn its newly acquired hotel called “LIVE! LOFTS” into a 310 bedroom resort complete with a conference hall, restaurants, cafe, and day spa. That said, Maryland Live will soon face the threat of fresh competition starting December 8th after the $1.4 billion MGM National Harbor opens for business. Up until now, Maryland Live has dominated the state’s casino market, but that is all set to change with the new venue’s opening, and as Bill Boasberg, the casino resort’s general manager, explains:
“Given our extensive investment, we are extremely excited and very positive on what we are going to do. We are not giving out specific numbers, but we think we have the best location and think it’s second to none.”