The state of Maryland made a bet that casino gambling would pay off for them. It seems as if they were right, even though their lottery sales are down.
For the first time in some 16 years, traditional lottery revenues for Maryland have fallen by nearly 2 percent. These results were released by the state’s Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. During the same period of time, casino revenues for Maryland have more than tripled. This is new record level for the state.
According to the state records, Maryland had a net gain of about $830 million in gambling taxes. This represents an increase of 27 percent over the previous fiscal year. The state lottery added about $545 million to the state’s general fund; the state casinos were able to add $284 million to the Maryland Education Trust Fund.
What may surprise some people is that over three-quarters of the total casino tax revenue that came in came from Maryland Live, which is located at Arundel Mills mall. The casino opened in June 2012.
Director of the Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, Stephen L. Martino, is reported to have hired a research firm to prove the hypothesis “that when you open the third-largest [commercial] casino in the United States squarely between your two most heavily populated metropolitan areas, there’s going to be some movement in discretionary gaming dollars from the lottery to the casino.”
According to Martino, lottery retailers around the vicinity of Maryland Live started to report losses keno sales and instant-ticket sales almost immediately after the casino went live. Before the casino had opened, lottery sales and revenues in the area had steadily increased for each fiscal year since 1996. Martino is said to have warned officials that the lottery and its 15-year growth streak was going to falter once casino revenues started playing in the mix.
Martino said recently, “Taken as a whole, what we operate and what we regulate, we are pleased with the way the fiscal year ended. The fact there was a lottery decline is not anything we are happy about. This is just a new normal, and we are going to see decreases and there is really not much we can do.”
It has been reported in the past that Maryland is aggressively planning to expand casino gambling, will be adding 24-hour operations, will also be adding live-action table games, and it looking at more properties. To date, a fifth casino is expected to open in Baltimore next year. Another casino is planned for Prince George’s County, opening expected to be in 2016. In addition to all of this, Maryland Live will be continuing with its own site expansion, which will include a 52-table poker room.
Right now, the casino already has 4300 slot machines and 180 table games. During July, Maryland Live is reported to have collected in gross gambling revenue more than $52 million. This is an increase of 48 percent year to date. As one can see, the outlook for Maryland gaming seems to be very bright indeed.