Lottery sales, casino revenue a billion-dollar boon for Maryland

Maryland gambling revenue soars

Maryland’s bet on casino gambling is paying off, even if it appears to be hurting the state’s lottery sales. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, traditional lottery revenues in Maryland fell for the first time in 16 years, by 1.9 percent, according to figures released Thursday by the Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. But casino revenues more than tripled, creating a record windfall. The state netted nearly $830 million in gambling taxes, an increase of more than 27 percent from the previous fiscal year. The lottery contributed $545 million to the general fund, while the state’s casinos sent $284 million to the Education Trust Fund. More than three-quarters of the casino tax revenue came fromMaryland Live, which opened in June 2012 at the Arundel Mills mall. Stephen L. Martino, director of the Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, has hired a research firm to prove — or disprove — 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.” Lottery retailers in the vicinity of Maryland Live began reporting declines in keno and instant-ticket sales immediately after it opened, Martino said. Lottery sales and revenues had increased every fiscal year since 1996. But Martino has been telling state officials for months that the lottery’s 15-year growth streak was about to end as casino revenues exploded. “Taken as a whole — what we operate and what we regulate — we’re quite pleased with the way the fiscal year ended,” he said. Still, he added, “The fact there was a [lottery] decline is not anything we’re happy about. . . . Is this just a new normal, and we’re going to see a decrease and there’s really not much we can do? Or are there things we can do with our games — how we market them, how they’re played — where we can bring people back where we lost them?” Maryland is aggressively expanding casino gambling, adding 24-hour operations, live-action table games and more properties. A fifth casino is to open next year in Baltimore, and another is coming in Prince George’s County in 2016. Maryland Live is continuing its own expansion, with a 52-table poker room opening at the end of this month. The casino already has 180 table games and more than 4,300 slot machines, and business is booming: In July, the first month of the new fiscal year, Maryland Live collected more than $52 million in gross gaming revenue — a 48 percent year-over-year increase.

Maryland lottery sales slide as casino revenue surges

Before Maryland’s largest casino opened less than two miles away, convenience store manager Chirag Patel was hoping to sell more lottery tickets than he was already moving. “We were doing very good business with scratch-off games,” he said. “I was trying to get another terminal” from the Maryland lottery commission. Then the massive Maryland Live opened near his Dash In gas station, and in the two years since, he estimated, his lottery ticket sales have gone down by 25 percent. And so has his commission, which used to be about $3,000 a month. Maryland lottery commission officials can commiserate. On Monday, they reported that traditional lottery sales have slightly decreased for a second consecutive year, to $1.72 billion. They, too, have pointed the finger at Maryland Live for helping to end the lottery’s unprecedented 16-year run of annual sales increases. Previously, the lottery weathered the opening of other smaller casinos in more remote parts of the state, such as Berlin and Perryville, said Stephen Martino, director of the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. But now, with bigger casinos moving into more densely populated areas, lottery officials face the prospect that the downward slide has only just begun. “There was always an expectation there was going to be cannibalization by casinos,” he said. “It is going to be a challenge with Horseshoe [Baltimore] opening in a couple weeks, and in a couple years, we will have MGM [National Harbor] opening.” Horseshoe is located by M&T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens play, on some of the lottery’s most lucrative turf. Baltimore accounts for just under 11 percent of the state’s population but almost 17 percent of lottery sales, state data show. Only one other locale generates a larger proportion of lottery sales: Prince George’s County, future site of MGM National Harbor. It is home to only 15 percent of the state’s population but generates 21 percent of lottery sales. Statewide, lottery sales decreased by 1.7 percent in fiscal 2014, compared with the previous year, agency officials said. In 2013, they decreased by 2.2  percent. While not a large percentage, it was still the third largest drop among the 43 lotteries nationwide. Surging casino revenue has more than made up for the decline in lottery sales. Last year, for example, the state netted 27 percent more in tax revenue from gambling than the year before, boosted by the opening of Rocky Gap casino and the introduction of table games, state data show. But the health of the lottery still matters for taxpayers. The state has come to rely on lottery sales, which are the fourth largest source of revenue after income, sales and corporate taxes. And the lottery still contributes nearly twice as much to the state’s general fund as casinos do, about $521 million in 2014. Lottery officials managed to keep the drop in sales from eating into taxpayers’ share. Martino said the agency still met its goal for 2014 for the amount of money it was supposed to turn over to the state. To get a better grip on the problem, lottery officials have hired experts to examine the impact casinos are having on their business. The results of that study are slated to be released at the lottery commission’s Thursday meeting. Doug Walker, an economist at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, who is involved in the Maryland lottery study, would not discuss the findings ahead of their release. But he said other studies have shown that opening more casinos generally has a negative effect on local lottery sales. “Those two industries tend to be substitutes for each other,” Walker said. That dynamic has played out in Pennsylvania, which has 12 casinos and generates more gambling revenue than any other state except for Nevada. Until the slot machine onslaught, Pennsylvania’s lottery, like Maryland’s, was on a roll, with annual sales increasing ever year, sometimes by double digits. But starting around 2006, as casinos began to spread across the state, lottery sales leveled off and then declined. Hardest hit were the areas surrounding the new slot machine parlors. In a 2008 report, Pennsylvania state lottery officials noted that when a new casino opened, lottery ticket retailers within an hour’s drive reported more frequent and higher percentage declines in weekly sales than retailers further away. But Richard McGowan, a gambling expert at Boston College, noted that trend was temporary. Pennsylvania’s lottery sales have gone up every year since 2010. Last year, the lottery posted a record profit. McGowan said there are other factors that can affect lottery sales such as the state of the economy, the mix of games, the size of the Powerball jackpot that year and even the weather. (Casinos do better in the spring and summer, he said, while lottery sales tend to do better in the winter.) The customer bases for lotteries and casinos also don’t overlap as much as people might assume, he said. “Most lottery tickets are bought on impulse when people go in to buy milk and gasoline,” McGowan said. “You have to plan to go to a casino.” Whether Maryland follows in Pennsylvania’s footsteps may boil down to timing. Gamblers have even more choices now than they did eight years ago when Pennsylvania expanded slots. In Ohio, which started adding casinos in 2012, lottery sales are still decreasing. As lottery officials brace for the opening of Horseshoe Baltimore, they are also trying to change their luck by offering games with recognizable brands such as the Ravens or Monopoly. And they have recently talked to Maryland Live about possibly working together on marketing, officials for the casino and lottery agency said. Until then, players should expect to see scratch-off tickets featuring dice, poker hands, slot machine reels and roulette wheels, said Carole Everett, an agency spokeswoman said. As they design new games, she said, “we are looking at how players are reacting to the casino gaming experience.” For Marylanders, the lottery lacks the novelty of having Vegas-style casinos on their doorstep. But, Martino said, that’s also its strength. “The lottery is ubiquitous. Even with the erosion we’ve had the last couple of years, the lottery is still well established in the marketplace, and in the minds of people,” he said. “Our challenge is going up against this competition that state policy has introduced. We have to find new games and energize our current games and responsibly encourage people to spend their entertainment dollars.”

Maryland’s billion-dollar casino boom: Big revenue boost projected from Horseshoe

The Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore isn’t scheduled to open until the second half of next year — but that hasn’t stopped the state from counting its future haul. In its first full fiscal year, the casino will generate between $425 million and $454 million in gambling revenue, swelling state and local coffers with between $207 million and $231 million in taxes, according to a pair of fiscal studies commissioned by state gambling regulators. Under construction a few blocks from M&T; Bank Stadium, the two-story Horseshoe is expected to turn Maryland into a billion-dollar-a-year casino market. Both studies project the state’s total gambling revenue to grow by about 30 percent, surpassing $1.15 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2015. A massive chunk of the Horseshoe’s business will come at the expense of Maryland Live, the money-minting Arundel Mills mall casino that stands to lose a projected $130 million in slots and table-games business to its Baltimore rival that first full year. But even with money being siphoned up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, the studies said, Maryland Live still stands to generate between $542 million and $552 million in gross gambling revenue. Drawn up by two consultants who worked independently, using their own modeling systems, the reports were presented Tuesday to the Maryland Department of Budget and Management, the Board of Revenue Estimates and others. On Wednesday, the consultants shared their findings at the Lottery and Gaming Control Commission’s monthly meeting. The studies were commissioned to help the state understand “where gaming revenues are going . . . as the competitive landscape changes,” said Stephen Martino, Maryland’s top gambling regulator. And more change is coming. Maryland’s Video Lottery Facility Location Commission confirmed this week that it will award the state’s sixth and final casino license, in Prince George’s County, the week before Christmas. The commission will hold a series of public meetings next month, including one on Dec. 6 in Annapolis, at which the consultants who studied the impact of the Horseshoe will share their projections for the three Prince George’s proposals. MGM Resorts is proposing to build a $925 million casino and hotel at National Harbor. An affiliate of Greenwood Racing wants to build a $761 million Parx- branded gambling resort on a wooded 22-acre lot off Indian Head Highway in Fort Washington. Penn National Gaming is proposing a $700 million Hollywood- branded casino and hotel at the historic Rosecroft harness-racing track. The second meeting, on Dec. 12, will be a public conference call with the commissioners, consultants and the three companies bidding for the lucrative license. The final meeting will be held in Baltimore on Dec. 20, when the commission plans to deliberate and then make a final decision.

No BIG lottery winners in Maryland, but two winning $1 million tickets sold

They aren’t the BIG BIG winners of Wednesday night’s drawing on the $564 million Powerball jackpot but two winning $1 million tickets were sold in Maryland. One of the $1 million tickets was sold in Garrett County and another was sold in Prince George’s County, according to Maryland Lottery officials. The two tickets matched five of the winning numbers. The winning numbers were 11-13-25-39-54. The Powerball number was 19. One of Maryland’s $1 million winning tickets was sold at the Giant food grocery store in the 15500 block of Annapolis Road in Bowie. The other ticket was sold at the Winners Circle Convenience store in the 400 block of Dave Turney Street in Oakland. “Maryland didn’t get the BIG jackpot,” said Carole Everett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery, referring to the $564 million jackpot. “But it shows you still can win on the ‘little’ million dollar amounts.” The stores in Maryland that sold the winning $1 million lottery tickets will receive $2,500 each. The winners have 182 days to claim their prize. Maryland is one of a handful of states that do not require lottery winners to reveal their identities. The big $564.1 million jackpot, which is the third largest Powerball jackpot, had winning tickets sold in Texas, North Carolina and Puerto Rico. Lottery officials said the Puerto Rico ticket was the first Powerball jackpot winner ever sold outside the continental United States. Across the country, there were reports of scores of people buying tickets for the big jackpot over the last few days. In Maryland, officials said they sold $9.9 million worth of tickets for the latest drawing. And talk about an evening rush hour of ticket sales: Maryland Lottery officials said that Wednesday between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. stores in the state sold 5,127 Powerball tickets per minute. The region has had its share of interesting lottery tales. In December, a 39-year-old truck driver from the Baltimore suburbs won $2.85 million in his http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/truck-driver- wins-285-million-in-his-second-maryland-lottery- jackpot/2014/12/30/dde89caa-9026-11e4-a412-4b735edc7175_story.html%3c/a%3e">second lottery win. The man, who asked not to be named, had previously won a $250,000 Mega Millions prize in Maryland in 2005. In Virginia, a Sterling man who works as a carpenter claimed his $1 million lottery winnings just four days before the prize money was set to expire. Even with the latest big prize gone for those in the D.C. region gone, Everett noted that the Powerball is reset Thursday. The prize — a mere $40 million. “Still, it’s $40 million,” she said.

Winning tickets for record-setting, $1.6 billion Powerball in Calif., Fla., Tenn.

Ah, the morning after the biggest lottery jackpot drawing in the history of the game. Now the bad news: The new multi-millionaires are locals. The winning tickets for Wednesday night’s $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot were sold in Tennessee, Florida and California. [ _Powerball has at least three winners in $1.6 billion jackpot_ ] Bummed? But the DMV region did have some — albeit smaller — winners of $1 million prizes in the drawing. In Maryland, officials said there were three, $1 million winners who bought tickets in Frederick, Capitol Heights and Bladensburg. In Virginia, there were two winners of $1 million in Salem and Virginia Beach. It was not immediately known of details of winners in the District. The Powerball jackpot hysteria had been growing in recent weeks. There had been no winner for the mega jackpot since Nov. 4 and the prize money kept rolling over and eventually reached a record-setting level of more than $1 billion. Billboards that advertise the lottery prize only went to million-dollar spots in some areas. [ _The $1,500,000,000 Powerball jackpot is so big it doesn’t even fit on lottery billboards_ ] Although there weren’t any big, big winners in the D.C. region, there were tales of others who won smaller amounts in the drawings over the last few weeks of Powerball hype. A group of 10 people who work for the Baltimore County Office of Permits, Approvals and Inspections won $150,000 in the Jan. 9 Powerball drawing. The group, which called itself The Terrific Ten, had played together by pooling their money for 15 years, according to Maryland lottery officials. The group’s leader told lottery officials: “When I first looked at the ticket, I saw three numbers. I had to get my glasses, and my daughter was asking me if we won, and I said, ‘I don’t know!’” His daughter helped him figure out they had in fact won. Another Marylander won $1 million in the Jan. 9 Powerball drawing. The 51-year-old Worcester County man, who has four children, told lottery officials that he bought a Powerball ticket at a Food Lion store in Berlin, Md., as he picked up two limes and bought a lottery ticket. He couldn’t sleep the night of the drawing, thinking about what he’d do if he won millions in a lottery. After he realized he won in the middle of the night, he told lottery officials, he kept quiet, not wanting to wake his sleeping wife. “I was numb,” he said. Maryland is one of six states where winners can remain anonymous. [ _D.C. man wins Powerball but chooses to remain anonymous_ ] Still, much of the media coverage and excitement focused on the big, big prize — the $1 billion-plus jackpot. On Wednesday night, after the winning numbers were picked, area residents packed a 7-Eleven store in suburban Los Angeles where one of the big-dollar winning tickets was sold. The winner — or winners — have not come forward but the store’s owner who gets roughly $1 million for selling the lucky ticket gave away free Slurpees. Powerball, which was started in the 1990s, sells tickets in 44 states, the District, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The winning numbers for the Wednesday’s biggest Powerball jackpot were 8-27-34-4-19 and Powerball: 10. ****

MGM National Harbor pushes Maryland gambling revenue to new heights

MGM National Harbor raked in nearly $42 million in gross revenue during its first three weeks of operation, helping to give the state’s casino industry a record-breaking December, according to data released by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. The figures put the newly-opened casino on pace to meeting revenue projections, while elevating Maryland’s gambling scene as an attraction for not only local and regional gamblers but also visitors from along the East Coast and the continental United States. But the Dec. 8 opening of the Prince George’s resort also took a toll on some its competitors, drawing business from nearby Maryland Live in Anne Arundel County, and as far away as Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia. Maryland Live, the state’s largest and most profitable casino, registered an 11 percent drop in revenue in December compared to the previous year. Still, gross gambling revenue for the casino was $48 million in December and it finished the year as the biggest generator of gambling revenue in the state. West Virginia officials reported loses of up to 20 percent at the Charles Town casino. “When an MGM-level facility comes to a market, it attracts people,” said Richard Clinch, who tracks the gambling industry as director of economic development at the University of Baltimore’s Jacob France Institute. “Is it substituting? Yes, from Charles Town and Anne Arundel. Is it meeting expectations? Yes. Is it sustainable? Yes.” Just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol, the $1.4 billion MGM casino drew 170,000 people opening week alone. It pulled in more than $24 million from its 3,237 slot machines and $17.6 million in gross revenue from its 165 table games in December. By its third year in operations, MGM is projected to bring in more than $700 million annually in pretax gambling revenue, according to fiscal studies. Experts say the casino resort has the potential to become one of the most successful casinos in the region, reaching not only the local market but also throngs of tourists visiting nation’s capital. “It is in a premier location with relatively modest competition,” Clinch said. “They are already in line to do half a billion dollars or more. And this isn’t even the tourist season.” Maryland gaming officials say the resort’s success “will fuel the continued growth of revenue” in the state, a good share of which goes to an education trust fund. With MGM’s opening, Maryland’s six casinos earned a combined $133.5 million in gross gambling revenue for December. MGM’s arrival was expected to hurt Maryland Live’s business. The casino, about 35 miles north of MGM, attracts gamblers from MGM’s feeder markets in Virginia and the Washington suburbs. The drop in revenue — 10 percent in slots and 13 percent in table games and poker — is “in line with our estimates with the new competitor entering the market,” Travis Lamb, Maryland Live’s chief financial officer, told the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission last week. A 2013 report commissioned by the state projects Maryland Live could see its profits drop 16 percent in 2019 as a result of MGM’s opening. The casino’s owners, Maryland-based Cordish Cos., are on an aggressive campaign to maintain their footing as Maryland’s largest and most profitable gaming facility, investing $200 million in an expansion that includes a 17-story hotel tower expected to open in early 2018. In addition to pushing its usual marketing programs, such as Super Bowl promotions, Maryland Live also has dropped its minimum bets during some hours of the day as an incentive to gamblers, Lamb said, acknowledging that “December wasn’t a great month.” Still, the Arundel Mills casino continues to dominate its rivals in the state: Horseshoe Baltimore, which made $29.7 million in December, up 9 percent from December 2015; Hollywood Casino in Perryville, $6 million in December, down nearly 4 percent from December 2015; Casino at Ocean Downs in Berlin, $4.1 million, about 6 percent higher; and the Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Flintstone, which made $3.5 million in December, about the same as the previous December. Casinos across the state also had to step up efforts to retain workers being lured by jobs at MGM National Harbor. Casino officials said last week the effects on staffing were not severe enough to disrupt operations. Some experts say the West Virginia casino, which markets to Maryland gamblers, particularly those from Montgomery and Frederick counties, will probably experience even bigger losses. West Virginia Lottery officials reported losses of $670,000, or 19.5 percent, in video lottery and about $214,000, or 22 percent, in table game revenue at the Charles Town casino in the first two weeks since MGM opened, the Associated Press reported. “We prepared well in advance by reinvesting in our business to remain competitive,” Eric Schippers, senior vice president of public affairs for Hollywood Casino, told AP. “Over the last few years we have built a new hotel, completely refreshed our slot machine offerings, added a new entertainment venue featuring top performers, and built new restaurants and added new amenities.” MGM has captured some of the local gambling community in its first few weeks of operations, but experts also say the resort offers an alternative for the region’s gamblers who normally would fly to Las Vegas or drive to Atlantic City. And, unlike it’s competitors, its Las Vegas-style glamour will probably attract tourists and conventioneers, they said. “You will have a seasonal drop in the winter, but once spring starts hitting, MGM is going to see a boost in business,” Clinch said. The December revenue figures also are on pace with county projections, Prince George’s officials said. “Obviously, those results were only for 23 days in December 2016,” said Thomas M. Himler, Prince George’s deputy chief administrative officer for budget, finance and economic development. “Another month or two are needed to fully assess MGM’s” full financial benefit to the county. As of this month, the county had not received its portion of gambling taxes from the state. But the county’s budget for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, is counting on nearly $19 million in revenue from the resort. About half of those funds are expected to come from gambling activities and the rest from levies imposed on hotel, property, food and concert tickets. The budget allocates the new revenue for schools and workforce training initiatives, as well as the hiring of police and emergency service staff members. The county is also betting on more income taxes from jobs at MGM. About half of the resort’s nearly 4,000 workers are county residents. Prince George’s officials expect the county to receive $40 million to $50 million in annually from MGM. In the long run, MGM will “exceed expectations,” County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), said at a recent meeting with editors and reporters of The Washington Post. But, he said, its success would be based on not only the resort’s gambling offerings but also its wider entertainment options. Since opening, MGM has hosted several big-name acts, including Bruno Mars and Duran Duran. Its theater featured a ball inauguration weekend. MGM general counsel Michael Pappas said a boxing match is in the works for the spring. “We are up 100 percent,” Pappas jokingly told the state’s gambling commission last week as he reported the company’s first month of operations. “We did very well obviously in December. It was very strong. We had very positive response to our opening and continue to have very good customer response as we move through January and close to February.”

Gov. O’Malley gambling on more casino revenue, less casino politics

GOV. MARTIN O’MALLEY has frequently complained that gambling is the tail that wags the dog in Maryland politics. As if to prove the point, he is now summoning state lawmakers to Annapolis, interrupting untold numbers of summer vacations, for a special legislative session devoted to adding a sixth casino to the five already authorized in the state, allowing table games like roulette in existing slots parlors and permitting gambling venues to stay open round-the-clock. So how much does the state stand to gain from all this? Maybe $200 million a year, at a generous estimate, five or so years from now. That’s just a little more than 1 percent of Maryland’s annual general fund revenue. The governor is within his rights to sound petulant at so much effort being expended to produce so little benefit. (“I’m so sick of this issue,” he told reporters Wednesday. “I just want to get it behind us.”) But to his credit, he has produced a blueprint for expanding gambling that, while not exactly inspirational, might be workable. Mr. O’Malley’s plan, which, if passed by the General Assembly, would be presented to voters at referendum in November, would give a green light for a Las Vegas-style mega-casino, with 3,000 video slots plus table games, in Prince George’s County. In an attempt to muffle bitter complaints from existing casino operators who hate the idea of more competition, the legislation would sweeten the pot for everyone — not only by allowing table games and longer hours but also by cutting taxes by up to 17 percent for big established casinos. Maryland’s gambling program, approved by voters in 2008, was oversold from the outset, which is one reason we opposed it then. Five casinos were authorized, of which just three have so far opened. Revenue projections were overstated, as was the promise that the tax income would repair the state’s structural deficit, fix schools and rescue moribund horse tracks. Similarly, it won’t be a surprise if the governor’s newest projections — that his plan would add $200 million to current revenue estimates — are also inflated. Still, the reality is that three of the four states surrounding Maryland have robust gambling programs, and lawmakers in Annapolis still face projected budget deficits. The state needs money. If the governor’s plan or something similar is enacted and approved by voters, the state’s gambling program could eventually yield $500 million to $800 million annually for Maryland schools. Mr. O’Malley’s plan has a number of other attractive features. One is that it would limit the gambling industry’s influence in state politics by banning contributions by casino companies and their executives to state and local candidates. If that’s doable, and passes constitutional muster — two big ifs — it’s a good idea. The bill would also shift some of the exorbitant cost of buying and leasing slot machines to casino operators from the state, which has already spent more than $250 million on them. We wish we could be as optimistic as Mr. O’Malley that his bill would at last remove gambling from the state’s political agenda, which it has dominated, or at least complicated, for the better part of a decade. But deep-pocketed gaming companies have proved an exceptionally tenacious lobby. Whatever the outcome of this special session, we doubt they’ll be quiescent for long. **Read more on this topic** The Post’s View: Does Maryland really want to be a pioneer on Internet gambling? Heather Mizeur: More gambling isn’t the answer for Maryland’s economy The Post’s View: High stakes in Maryland

Maryland’s casinos raked in $833 million in the past fiscal year

Maryland Live Casino, the state’s gambling behemoth, raked in more than $654 million in gross gambling revenue for the fiscal year that ended in June, helping put gambling on track to become a $1 billion industry in the next year, according to data released this week by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. The state’s four casinos, capitalizing on recently legalized table games, combined to generate more than $833 million in gross gambling revenue, a figure that is expected to soar with the Aug. 26 opening of Baltimore’s Horseshoe Casino. The new casino is expected to haul in at least $425 million, according to fiscal studies of the project. In the meantime, Maryland Live Casino, which made $56.5 million in June, marked its 14th consecutive month with pretax gambling revenues of $50 million or more — a streak that began in May 2013, the first full month of operations for blackjack, poker, craps and other table games. The Arundel Mills casino continues to dominate its three rivals in the state: Hollywood Casino in Perryville, whose $7 million in June revenue represents a nearly 10 percent drop from its performance last year in the same month; Casino at Ocean Downs, which brought in $4.8 million, about the same as last year’s figures for the month; and the Rocky Gap Casino Resort, which made $3.7 million in June, more than 50 percent more than the previous June. All four casinos earned a combined $72 million in gross revenue for the month of June. Maryland Live Casino’s $654.4 million in gross revenue means that the casino was making about $1.8 million a day before taxes. It also means, according to the state’s lottery and gaming control agency, that the Anne Arundel facility pumped about $253 million into the state’s education trust fund. But once it opens, the two-story Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore, a few blocks from M&T Bank Stadium, will likely take a chunk of some of Maryland Live’s fortunes. According to gambling experts, Maryland Live stands to lose up to $130 million in slots and table games in the first year of Horsehoe’s existence. Still, Maryland Live is hardly going to fizzle out: Fiscal studies commissioned by the state still say it will still bring in up to $550 million in gambling revenue. David G. Schwartz, the director of the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV, studies gambling industries across the country. He said he thinks Maryland will easily reach into the $1 billion-revenue club soon, joining Michigan, Ohio and Connecticut. (Nevada’s annual gross gambling revenues exceed $11 billion.) “You can definitely see that once the National Harbor project comes online, and the Baltimore project comes online, Maryland will be a much bigger state,” Schwartz said, referring to MGM National Harbor’s casino, which is set to open in 2016. Schwartz said he expects a healthy competition between the Baltimore and Anne Arundel County casinos. The Horseshoe casino will host satellite World Series of Poker events, which will be a huge draw, he said. J. Freedom du Lac contributed to this report.

Maryland should not fall again for gambling’s siren song

THE PROMISE of slot machine gambling was so wildly oversold to Maryland voters, who approved it three years ago, that it’s a wonder the General Assembly in Annapolis is not targeted daily by protesters demanding to know what happened to the money. Originally, state budget analysts predicted that slots revenue would yield $76 million for education in fiscal 2011, and nearly $500 million in the current fiscal year. The actual take last year was scarcely two-thirds the amount projected and will probably be less than a fifth the amount forecast for this year. Even after the scheduled opening this summer of what will be the biggest gambling parlor in Maryland, and one of the biggest in the United States — a 4,750-slot-machine colossus in Anne Arundel County — officials say the state’s take from gambling over the next five years will be 12 percent less than expected: a shortfall of some $475 million. So Maryland residents can be forgiven if they’re skeptical about the hype surrounding the latest supposed windfall, from a proposed expansion of gambling now under consideration by state lawmakers. Under a bill that sailed through the state Senate last week, voters would be asked to approve a sixth casino — this one in Prince George’s County — as well as table games, such as blackjack and roulette, for all gambling venues in the state. And just in case all that doesn’t translate into sufficiently fat profits for the casino operators, Maryland would also sweeten the pot by cutting its share of the proceeds by more than 20 percent. We have long opposed gaming in Maryland because of the social ills that accompany it, such as gambling addiction, and because it is often tantamount to a voluntary tax on the poor and the vulnerable. In a time of economic stress, those arguments seem stronger than ever. But it seems equally valid to oppose an expansion of gambling on the basis of the fraudulent assurances with which slots were sold originally. Why be fooled twice? Perhaps with that in mind, a growing number of lawmakers in Prince George’s are coming around to the view that, if there is to be a casino in their county, it should be one whose victims — er, customers — are mostly well-heeled fun-seekers from the District, Virginia and farther-flung locales. That is central to the proposal pushed by Rushern L. Baker III (D), the Prince George’s county executive, who wants a $1 billion gambling palace built at National Harbor, the shopping, hotel and residential development just south of the Beltway. A casino of that scale and glitz — Las Vegas on the Potomac — built at private expense in a venue that already attracts many out-of-towners, would not draw most of its clientele from Prince George’s. Or so the argument goes. Mr. Baker, a longtime opponent of gambling, flipped under intense pressure from the state Senate president, Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert). Mr. Miller wants a casino in Prince George’s and says, outrageously, that without one the county will not get the funds it needs to build a new hospital, which Mr. Baker badly wants. Perhaps Mr. Baker sees his proposal as the least bad option available to him — that if Prince George’s must have a casino to satisfy a political force majeure, it should at least be a first-class facility that preys primarily on out-of-staters, not locals. Fine. But this time voters should not be fooled into thinking that an expansion of gambling is a good idea, let alone a panacea for Maryland’s perennial problems in balancing its budget and funding its schools. **More on this issue from PostOpinions:** The Post’s View: Gambling fever gone wild in Maryland The Post’s View: Remember the pot of gold that gambling promised? The Post’s View: A casino-for-hospital deal is a sucker bet

Amid winning Mega Millions ticket sold in Maryland, a look at state’s other big winners

The Tuesday drawing of the $414 million Mega Millions lottery was the third largest in the jackpot’s history. There were two tickets sold that matched all six of the winning numbers — one was purchased at a store called Lady’s Liquor, 6474 Crain Hwy. in La Plata, Md.; the other was sold at a Sunoco convenience store on Merritt Island, southeast of Orlando. The winning numbers were 11, 19, 24, 33, 51 and the Mega Ball number was 7. Maryland is one of six states where winners can remain anonymous in lottery drawings, but the managers at Lady’s Liquor said they think — and hope — the winner is one of their regular customers, whom they describe as mostly men who come in and play the lottery with some consistency. Lottery officials encouraged the winner to immediately sign the winning ticket and put it in a safe place. They said it usually takes winners a few days to process that they’ve won and then seek legal and financial advice before they come in to claim their prize money. The winner has 182 days to claim the prize. In Tuesday’s jackpot, there is a $230.9 million cash option. The Maryland winner will take home about $76.4 million in the cash option, after taxes. Here’s a look at the top Mega Millions winners in Maryland, ranked by payouts, including Wednesday’s winner: 1. $218.6 million in March 2012. The jackpot’s winners in Maryland included three people who worked in public education. They called themselves the “Three Amigos.” 2. $207 million in March 2014. Winning ticket sold at a liquor store in La Plata, Md. No winner has come forward at this time. 3\. $189 million in October 2013 — an Anne Arundel County man. He came forward with his family in a publicity photo at Maryland lottery headquarters. They called themselves the “Lucky Family” and held up a sign that said “We are so blessed, excited, fortunate, happy!!” 4. $183 million in June 2013 — a Baltimore County woman. 5. $109 million in April 2004 — a Montgomery County couple. And here’s a look at some of the largest Mega Millions jackpots ever and where the winning tickets were sold: 1. $656 million in March 2012 — Maryland, Illinois and Kansas. 2. $636 million in December 2013 — California and Georgia. 3. $414 million in March 2014 — Maryland and Florida. 4. $390 million in March 2007 — New Jersey and Georgia. 5. $380 million in January 2011 — Washington and Idaho.

D.C. Lottery works hard to draw in new players

The Soul Train pulled into Union Station, towing famed radio DJ Tom Joyner, dance and trivia contests, and plenty of the music featured on the long-running televised revue. And lottery tickets — lots of lottery tickets. The day-long event in the station’s main hall on Wednesday was a promotion for the D.C. Lottery’s newest instant ticket — the Soul Train scratch-off, $5 for a one in 180,000 chance at $50,000. And it was an indicator of why the District’s lottery proceeds are again on the upswing after five years of erosion. Lottery revenues totaled nearly $250 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to audited city financial data released last month. That’s a nearly 8 percent jump from the prior year, though it’s still below the lottery’s all-time sales high of $266 million in 2006. As controversy continues to swirl five years later over the awarding of the D.C. Lottery’s main contract, officials said the improved revenue figures show success in responding to the area’s changing gambling market. While selling in a relatively small and exclusively urban jurisdiction, the D.C. Lottery enjoys one of the country’s highest per-capita sales rates, according to figures compiled by GamblingData, a trade publication. But revenue from the city’s local numbers games — the twice-daily draws that have accounted for the bulk of sales since the city’s lottery was launched in 1982 — have fallen in recent years, and new competition from Maryland and Virginia has cut into the District’s sales take from big multistate Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots. From 2007 through 2010, D.C. lottery sales dropped 14 percent, while national sales increased 5 percent. To replace those thinning cash cows, D.C. Lottery Director Buddy W. Roogow said he has focused on improving scratch-off tickets and rolling out new instant-win games to draw in a new generation of players. “The demographics here have changed dramatically,” Roogow said. “Older people like Pick 3 and Pick 4. It was such a common game in terms of the numbers racket” — the illegal games that predated the government lottery. Now, he said, “We’ve got to have more exciting games, or games within the games, to get people excited.” That’s meant bigger payouts and more attractive designs on the instant tickets. The District is now selling its second series of $20 tickets with a top $1 million prize, matching payouts in Maryland and Virginia. The lottery also has done more branded tickets — Monopoly, Betty Boop, the Pink Panther, the Washington Wizards and now Soul Train — hoping to reach new players. On many losing tickets, players can enter a “second chance” sweepstakes to win prizes. For Roogow, a former director of Maryland’s state lottery, scratch-off sales have been perhaps his biggest success, rising more than 30 percent since he took over the agency in 2009. While instant tickets account for more than half of national lottery sales, in the District they account for only about 20 percent. The conventional wisdom has been that Washington is a “numbers market,” said John Gorman, instant-ticket director at the D.C. Lottery. New numbers games rolled out under the new contract have aided the lottery’s bottom line. “Race2Riches,” based on a simulated horse-race run every four minutes, generated $7.1 million in sales last year, while “Fast Play” tickets — essentially a scratch-off card without the scratching — added nearly $6 million. Keno, introduced in 2004, also saw a slight bump. Those games — which require little or no wait for players to learn their payoff — are more appealing to “the emerging market in D.C.,” said Emmanuel Bailey, owner of lottery contractor DC09. “This is an instant-gratification world.” Bailey, who is partnered with Greek gaming giant Intralot, figured large in the political controversy over the lottery contract. But after early hiccups during its 2010 rollout, he said, the system is thriving. In the past two years, the lottery has added 50 sales locations, with some retailers attracted to smaller and sleeker terminals. Many locations now offer self-service terminals and automated instant-ticket vending machines. From DC09’s offices a block from Nationals Park, Bailey and his team target sales and promotion efforts to particular areas of the city and even times of day. The traditional numbers games do best east of the Anacostia River, for instance, while national jackpot tickets sell best downtown during lunchtime. After accounting for players’ prizes, sales agents’ commissions, contractors’ fees and other overhead, only a fraction of lottery sales are transferred into city coffers. Last year’s 8 percent increase in sales translated into only a 6.7 percent rise in government revenue — from $62.3 million to $66.4 million. That’s significantly down from 2006, when the lottery put $73.8 million in city coffers, thanks to record Powerball sales. Roogow said higher prize payouts and licensing fees for the new branded scratch-off games have driven costs up. “You do have to pay a little bit more,” he said, but “it allows you to reach out to that new player.” At Union Station, the Soul Train tickets attracted new and old players alike — including some who considered themselves numbers players, not scratch-off aficionados. Ruthie Capies, a 53-year-old Northeast resident, plays Pick 3 and Pick 4 games weekly. “That’s my personal preference,” she said. But she gave the Soul Train scratcher a shot. She broke even on her first ticket and used the proceeds to buy a second. That one was not a winner.

Maryland casinos post the Mid-Atlantic’s only big revenue gains. But for how long?

Maryland was the only state in the Mid-Atlantic whose casino revenue increased significantly between 2012 and 2013, as it cashed in on gamblers who had previously headed out of the state. But there are signs that the rapid pace of growth may be slowing.  That trend has continued into 2014. In the past two months, there has been a drumbeat of headlines such as “Trump Plaza becomes 4th casino in Atlantic City to close this year” and “Pa. slot revenue down for fiscal year.”  The $400 million casino, owned by Caesars Entertainment and located near M&T Bank Stadium, generated about $22 million in September. But that was largely at the expense of its closest competitor, Maryland Live, located beside the Arundel Mills mall, whose total revenue from slots and table games dropped about 10 percent, compared with a year earlier, the state reported. Hollywood Casino Perryville’s revenue declined 10.7 percent. While Maryland casino revenue hit another record, most of the gains no longer consisted of millions of dollars that once would have been lost to Delaware and West Virginia. They have just been shifted 12 miles up the road from Hanover to Baltimore, said Richard McGowan, a casino industry expert at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. Some casino operators have been warning that the Mid-Atlantic casino market was oversaturated before Horseshoe Baltimore opened. But other analysts noted the same thing has been said many times before, only to be contradicted by another expansion of gambling.  McGowan cautioned against making predictions based on one month’s performance. While Maryland Live and other nearby casinos may have to get used to bringing in less revenue than they were before Horseshoe’s opening, “I don’t think any of them will close,” he said. “I think things will level off.” A week before the release of the latest Maryland gambling revenue figures, the industry’s leading trade group, the American Gaming Association, put out a study, based on 2013 figures, highlighting casinos’ economic development benefits. The study, compiled by Oxford Economics and including revenue from tribal casinos, found that the industry contributes $240 billion to the U.S. economy, supports more than 1.7 million jobs and generates nearly $74 billion in income. The group’s president, Geoff Freeman, said the study shows that “the industry’s contributions have gone underestimated.” The industry has already been making that argument successfully, particularly in post-industrial cities, since Detroit first welcomed casinos to its downtown in the 1990s. Since then, dozens of casinos have opened in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. And Massachusetts and New York have now legalized Vegas-style gambling. So why the need to further convince anyone? “Why?” McGowan said. “Because everyone is talking about oversaturation.”

Maryland casinos rake in nearly $87 million in October

Maryland casinos generated nearly $87 million in gaming revenue in October, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency reported this week. Including Horseshoe Baltimore, which opened in August, state casino revenue is up 31 percent compared with a year earlier. A portion of that increase came at the expense of other state casinos. Excluding Horseshoe, state casino revenue is down by 3 percent, compared with October 2013. The surprise may be which Maryland casinos are being affected the most. Maryland Live, the state’s largest casino and one of the largest in the nation, has thrived since opening in 2012, largely at the expense of casinos in Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In Delaware, declining gaming revenue has prompted casino operators to request lawmakers change the way they are taxed in order to stay competitive. In West Virginia, casino workers have been laid off. In Pennsylvania, annual slot machine revenue recently decreased two years in a row. And in Atlantic City, four of the city’s 12 casinos will close by year’s end, leaving thousands of workers out of work. But even before Horseshoe Baltimore was finished being built, there were some dire predictions that the casino near M&T; Bank Stadium would threaten Maryland Live’s dominance. A study last year by Cummings and Associates prepared for the lottery commission projected once Horseshoe opened Maryland Live would see its slot revenue fall by 16 percent, and its table game revenue drop by as much as 25 percent in the next two years. So far, at least, the suburban casino is holding its own. It took in $50.3 million in October, a decrease of about 3 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. October’s results were “incredibly strong,” declared Maryland Live president and general manager Rob Norton, “showing only a slight deviation to the previous year and greatly exceeding the State’s projections despite new competition.” The state’s newest casino is having a bigger effect on the state’s oldest, Hollywood Casino Perryville, located 40 miles northeast of Horseshoe, close to Interstate 95. Perryville, which opened in 2010, took the biggest hit of the five casinos last month and saw its revenue drop 11 percent, compared with a year earlier, to $6.1 million. Its revenue dropped by 11 percent in September as well. Maryland’s other two casinos appeared largely unaffected. Casino at Ocean Downs generated $4.1 million, down 2.7 percent compared with October 2013. Rocky Gap reported $3.8 million in revenue, an 11 percent increase compared with the same period last year. A sixth casino, MGM National Harbor, in Prince George’s County, is under construction and expected to open in 2016.

Maryland casinos report record haul

If you bet the over last month on Maryland’s gross gambling revenue, then it’s time to collect. Maryland’s four casinos raked in $71 million in August, a record for the state’s rapidly expanding gambling sector. More than $28 million was sent to the state’s Education Trust Fund in August. According to State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency figures released Thursday, three-fourths of the haul came from Maryland Live. The airport- terminal-size gambling hall at Arundel Mills — the state’s largest casino — brought in more than $53 million in gross revenue in August, the fourth consecutive month that it has cleared more than $50 million. Most of the pretax windfall came from Maryland Live’s slot machines ($35.5 million at 4,339 terminals) and live-action table games ($17.4 million at 122 tables offering blackjack, baccarat, craps and other games). But a new poker room, which opened Aug. 28 with considerable buzz and long lines, also added to the casino’s bankroll, pulling in more than $350,000 in its first 31 / 2 days of business. Maryland Live officials have said they expect the split-level, 52-table card room to generate more than $1 million each month. Since opening last week, it has been one of the busiest card rooms in the country; on Wednesday night, only the Commerce Casino near Los Angeles had more tables running. The statewide gambling haul has been increasing at a dizzying rate in the past year, particularly since November, when Maryland voters approved a dramatic expansion of casino gambling, including 24-hour operations and the addition of the Las Vegas-style table games. Excluding Rocky Gap Casino, the small resort that opened in May in Western Maryland, year-over-year casino revenue in the state was up about 50 percent, or $22 million. Maryland Live alone was up $20.9 million in year-over-year gambling revenue. Slot revenue at Maryland Live and Hollywood Casino Perryville is taxed at 67 percent. Rocky Gap and the Casino at Ocean Downs pay lower rates (50 percent and 43 percent, respectively). Hollywood, Maryland Live and Rocky Gap send 20 percent of table-game revenue to the state; Ocean Downs does not have table games.

Maryland lottery sales slide for second year

Maryland lottery sales decreased slightly for the second year in a row, state lottery officials reported Monday. Overall, gambling contributed more to the state’s coffers in fiscal year 2014 compared to the year before, because of revenue from casinos. But the decline in lottery sales suggests Maryland has joined other states, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, that have seen them take a hit once more casinos open.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Traditional lottery and casinos together sent $849.2 million to the state’s General Fund and Education Trust Fund, respectively, an increase of 2.4 percent from the previous fiscal year.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday The lottery generated $1.724 billion in sales, down 1.7 percent. That was similar to the decline in fiscal year 2013, which ended a 16-year run of annual increases. That year, lottery sales fell by about 2 percent, to $1.756 billion.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Tax revenue from casinos more than makes up for any drop in lottery sales, but the lottery still contributes far more to the state’s general fund than casinos, about $545 million last year. The state has hired researchers to take a closer look at the impact that the expansion of casino gaming is having on the state lottery. Those findings are scheduled to be released Thursday at the next Lottery and Gaming Control Commission meeting. Of note is a recent Capital News Service multi-part series on gambling in Maryland that began with an analysis of Maryland lottery sales data and found that the strongest sales tend to be higher in lower-income Zip codes in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. A prime example, CNS noted, is Park Heights in Baltimore:    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Both Baltimore and Prince George’s are the sites of future casinos, with Horseshoe Baltimore slated to open Aug. 26    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday .

People flock to Baltimore area store that sold winning Mega Millions jackpot ticket

Until Saturday, it was just another 7-Eleven, tucked away among an African hair-braiding shop, a liquor store and a check-cashing outlet on busy Liberty Road in Baltimore County. That’s when state officials announced that a very lucky person, or persons, bought a winning ticket Friday evening for the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot. The announcement turned the convenience store near Randallstown into a shrine for TV satellite trucks, sightseers and million-dollar hopefuls. “This may be the lucky store,” said Cornell Hicks, 53, of Randallstown, one of those who stopped by Saturday to buy a scratch-and-play card. He said he bought a ticket for the Mega Millions drawing Friday a few blocks away at the Maryland Lottery office. He had about 60 tickets in his pocket, but he said he was afraid to check to see if he was a winner. Lottery officials said that the winning ticket was bought at 7:15 p.m. Friday and that no winner has come forward yet. Maryland is one of the few states that doesn’t require lottery winners to be identified. Two other winning tickets were bought in Kansas and Illinois. The three ticket holders will split the jackpot. Bob Goss, 64, and his family drove about 22 miles from Pasadena, Md., to cash in their tickets and buy more tickets. He said his wife won about $6, far less than the cost of the gas used to drive to the store. Inside, a Mega Millions sign lay on the floor, sideways, across from the check-out counter. Employees declined to comment, but they seemed overwhelmed by the sudden attention. “This has never happened before,” one worker told a shopper. Carole Everett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery, said the store will receive a $100,000 bonus for selling the ticket. She added that a family had owned the store for about 10 years. A record $11.8 million was spent on lottery tickets Friday in Maryland, beating the previous record of $5.8 million set for a single day in 2007, Everett said. Stephen Boone, 25, of Hunt Valley said he worked down the street from the 7-Eleven and bought his ticket at another store. But he was in the 7-Eleven on Saturday, hoping some of the store’s “good luck” will rub off, Boone said. “Man, this is crazy. Do you think the winner will show up here? I know I wouldn’t if I won,” he joked. **More on Mega Millions fromThe Washington Post:** Three tickets share $640 million jackpot Congrats, winners! You’re rich — but not too rich. Singletary: Why I threw away common sense and bought a ticket Mega Millions: Can you eer beat the lottery’s long odds?

Rolling the dice on gambling in Maryland

GAMBLING’S PROMISE in Maryland has been oversold so often that voters probably stopped noticing some time ago. Casinos, they were told, would rescue the dying racing industry; preserve horse farms and the open space they occupy; send a gusher of money to schools; and balance the state’s budget. Three years after Maryland voters authorized slots casinos, horse racing is still ailing, school funding remains tight and the state budget faces a structural deficit, as usual. None of that stopped Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) from calling a special legislative session in Annapolis for next month, aimed at expanding Maryland’s gambling program to include table games at existing casinos plus a new casino in Prince George’s County. And the governor added a new spin: In the course of a two-minute video, he referred a half-dozen times to the jobs an expansion would create as well as new revenue that would flow to schools. This wellspring of employment, Mr. O’Malley said, would create 2,000 permanent new jobs. (That’s a pittance in the context of Maryland’s overall job force of about 3.1 million, but never mind.) The governor is determined, as he has frequently said, to take gambling off the state’s political agenda — “to put this issue behind us,” as he said again Friday. That’s understandable, for gambling has become a stumbling block in Annapolis that threatens to make him look ineffectual as he plans a race for president in 2016. With that in mind, he is trying to forge a deal that would satisfy an array of competing agendas. The issue has been forced in part by Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, a longtime opponent of gambling who now supports a big new casino at National Harbor, the splashy development on the banks of the Potomac. Mr. Baker, strapped for cash in Prince George’s, wants the local revenue from gambling; he also hopes to enhance National Harbor’s brand. Mr. Baker has an apparent partner in the gaming company MGM Resort International, which badly wants to build a casino at National Harbor — so badly it dropped its insistence that the state cut taxes on gambling revenue. A major casino in Prince George’s, whether at National Harbor or, less likely, at Rosecroft Raceway, could cut into profits — and, possibly, local proceeds — at the recently opened Maryland Live! casino in Anne Arundel County and a still-unbuilt facility in Baltimore city. Those casino owners are asking to be shielded against losses in the event a new facility comes to Prince George’s. How to do that — whether by cutting taxes on slots, authorizing table games, extending casino hours — is one question. Another is whether it is the state’s role to guarantee minimum profits at casinos indefinitely. We long opposed casinos in Maryland as a lure to corruption and gambling addiction and a de facto tax on the poor and the lower-middle class. But Maryland voters, including nearly 60 percent of Prince Georgians, voted in 2008 to let the games (well, slots) begin. Given that, as well as competition from neighboring states whose casinos already have table games, it was unrealistic to expect no future expansion in Maryland. While rushing an expansion of gambling would be unwise, Mr. O’Malley’s concern — that gambling has poisoned politics in Annapolis and should be addressed — is justified. **More on this debate:** The Post’s View: High stakes in Maryland The Post’s View: Gambling’s unholy grip on Maryland The Post’s View: Maryland should not fall again for gambling’s siren song The Post’s View: Don’t bank on casinos

Gov. O’Malley brought casinos to Maryland, but that doesn’t mean he likes them

Confetti was flying and fireworks were exploding, but Gov. Martin O’Malley looked decidedly unenthusiastic as he welcomed VIP guests at the launch of the Horseshoe casino in Baltimore last week. O’Malley (D), who initially planned to skip the opening of Maryland’s fifth casino, offered the briefest remarks of all the speakers at a packed reception. He opted out of a ceremonial pull of a giant slots lever. And this energetic politician, who can play the showman when working a crowd, was long gone before the casino doors swung open to the public. The episode reflected O’Malley’s ambivalence toward Maryland’s slow embrace of casino gambling. The governor, who is traveling to Democratic functions across the country as he weighs a possible White House bid, once called slot machines “a pretty morally bankrupt way” to fund education. Research shows that gambling disproportionately preys on the poor, and the casino boom fits uncomfortably into O’Malley’s otherwise progressive legacy: a minimum-wage increase, repeal of the death penalty, expansion of immigrant rights and legalization of same- sex marriage. Yet Maryland’s soon-to-be $1 billion-a-year casino industry would not have gotten off the ground without O’Malley’s active involvement, after years of bitter stalemate at the State House in Annapolis. “It may not be something he wants to tout, but it’s absolutely part of his résumé,” said Thomas F. Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. “Maryland held out for a long time, and it’s now become a real player in the casino industry.” Nearly $800 million in gambling proceeds has flowed into state coffers to help fund education, and the industry’s contribution is projected to grow much larger by the time the state’s sixth — and final — casino opens at National Harbor in 2016. The industry employs about 5,500 people, including those working at the Horseshoe, which is located along one of the main gateways into the city where O’Malley spent seven years as mayor. Several current and former aides say O’Malley’s primary objection to state-sponsored gambling was the time the bitter legislative battle sapped from other priorities. The governor said he regrets “the amount of energy it took to put this behind us” but believes that he and state lawmakers struck “a reasonable compromise on a really divisive issue.” Casinos, O’Malley said, are not “a substitute for all of us doing our part to make the state better.” In his remarks at Horseshoe, O’Malley praised the jobs that had been created, but the word “casino” did not pass his lips. His brief comments stood in stark contrast to those of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D), who gushed about what she predicted would be “the most exciting casino in the mid- Atlantic region.” O’Malley arrived in Annapolis in 2007, after four years of acrimonious State House debate over gambling. His predecessor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) had pushed relentlessly to legalize slot machines; House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and his chamber resisted. Proponents of slots argued that Marylanders were taking their money to play in the surrounding states of Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, where the machines were legal. O’Malley offered a compromise that called for putting the issue to voters on the 2008 ballot. A ballot measure was approved, authorizing slots in five locations around the state, and O’Malley expressed hope that the legislature could move on to other priorities. Before long, gambling advocates started pushing for a sixth location, in Prince George’s County, and for Las Vegas-style table games, such as blackjack and roulette, that had been approved in other states. O’Malley reluctantly agreed to call a special legislative session in 2012 to act on those proposals. “This is not so much about what we want as what we need to get behind us,” he said at the time. “I don’t know a single member of the General Assembly who ran for office wanting to deal with the issue of gaming year in and year out. For crying out loud, aren’t we all tired of this by now?” Miller, the Senate president, said O’Malley was “pushed along the way by his need for revenues to continue to fund education.” “Anybody who’s a progressive, who considers themselves an intellectual, they don’t like the issue either,” Miller said. At the same time, he said, “if [O’Malley] hadn’t gotten involved, it absolutely, positively would not have happened.” Busch credited the governor with putting together a gambling program that has been well run and fair to the companies that bid for casino licenses. Among Busch’s earlier objections to slots was that they would lead to “unjust enrichment” of pre-selected racetrack owners. “In the final analysis, whether you like gaming or you don’t like gaming, it’s been put in place in an appropriate manner,” Busch said. Still, some observers say, O’Malley’s record on gambling is at odds with the political persona he has presented during visits to states such as Iowa and New Hampshire and in speeches on behalf of Democratic candidates across the country. “It’s hard to project an image as a progressive when you know that this will bankrupt some people and put a dent into some working-class families,” said Schaller, the political scientist. “It’s nice to have the tax revenue, but you wonder who’s picking up the tab.” Gerard E. Evans, an Annapolis lobbyist whose clients have included several gambling interests, said, “Gambling is not a first choice for any politician, because it does involve addictive behavior.” But, Evans said, Maryland is capturing gambling revenue that had been flowing to surrounding states. “When you’re governor, sometimes you have to swallow hard and do the responsible thing,” he said. Gambling interests also have played a role in O’Malley’s political activities. Caesars Entertainment, the lead company behind the Horseshoe, gave $100,000 to the Democratic Governors Association in 2012, during O’Malley’s tenure as chairman of the group, which seeks to elect party members nationwide. Aides have said such contributions have no influence on O’Malley’s policy views. Commercial casinos now operate in 23 states. Plenty of other governors also have chosen to bolster their state budgets with gambling proceeds. Still, in his frequent political travels, O’Malley rarely talks about Maryland’s burgeoning casino industry. Kathy Sullivan, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said voters will give much more weight to other issues when deciding on a presidential candidate. “It’s not like you can go around saying, ‘Nominate me for president because I put up a bunch of casinos in Maryland,’” Sullivan said. “That’s not going to work.”

Powerball jackpot, already at a record level, could reach $1 billion

The Powerball lottery jackpot has already jumped to $700 million. Could it reach $1 billion? By midday Thursday, lottery officials said the new high came as sales of tickets continue to skyrocket. The new jackpot translates into a $428.4 million lump sum, before taxes, for a potential winner or winners. In Virginia, lottery officials said that during peak times through Saturday they expect to sell $21,600 worth of Powerball tickets a minute. Lottery officials in Maryland said the jackpot could grow before Saturday’s 11 p.m. drawing. “This is just one of those rare times when everybody is talking about the Powerball jackpot,” said Gordon Medenica, director of the Maryland Lottery. Maryland officials reported selling $6 million worth of tickets Wednesday. At the peak that evening, ticket sales hit $800,000 in one hour. Sales in the District hit a high of $87,000 an hour. Could the big prize become a $1 billion jackpot? “We could be on the verge of creating the first lottery billionaire,” Medenica said. “This is uncharted territory. This has never happened.” Because no one won Wednesday night’s drawing, it has rolled over and grown bigger. That comes after no one won last weekend’s drawing. Wednesday’s numbers were 2, 11, 47, 62 and 63, and the Powerball was 17. Carole Everett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery division, said Thursday that there is no limit on how many times the jackpot can roll over. It just keeps going until “someone hits” it, she said. Sales of lottery tickets have surged across the country as dreamers take a shot at the jackpot. About $352 million worth of Powerball tickets were sold between this past Saturday’s drawing and Wednesday’s drawing. “As it gets bigger and bigger, more people are playing,” Everett said. One of the most recent large Powerball jackpots was for $590.5 million. It was won in 2013 by Gloria MacKenzie, an 84-year-old Florida woman. She took a lump-sum cash payment of $370 million before taxes. Another large jackpot was a Mega Millions drawing in 2012, which was a $656 million win split three ways, according to lottery officials. Members of one of the winning groups dubbed themselves the “Three Amigos” and were from Maryland. And what’s the magic to winning the big jackpot? “It’s just the luck of the draw,” Everett said. The jackpot of $700 million is an estimated value based on annual 30-year payments, although most lottery winners opt for the smaller lump-sum payout. Factor in federal taxes, and Maryland officials estimate such a payout would result in about $284 million. On Wednesday, about a dozen people won either $1 million or $2 million prizes. The winners were in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington state. Realistically, the chances of winning the big jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to lottery officials. In fact, a person is more likely to get struck by lightning or bitten by a shark than win the lottery. On average, the chances of being struck by lightning are 1 in 3,000 during an average lifetime. And the chances of being bitten by a shark are less than 1 in 264.1 million. Powerball is played in 44 states, as well as the District, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Even after a winner is picked, the rest of the world doesn’t always have to know the person’s identity. Six states — Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and South Carolina — allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.

With Maryland Live leading, state’s casinos boost revenue

This is not a broken record: Maryland Live Casino raked in more than $50 million in gross gambling revenue last month. Yes, again. The Anne Arundel County casino’s pretax take was $53,422,841 in November — the seventh consecutive month it has cleared at least $50 million on its slot machines and table games. Collectively, the state’s four casinos brought in $66.8 million in November, according to figures released Thursday by the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. Excluding Rocky Gap Casino, the picturesque Western Maryland resort that opened in the spring, year-over-year casino revenue in the state was up 47 percent, or $20.4 million, for the month. Nearly the entire increase came from live-action table games, which were approved last year by voters as part of a dramatic expansion of gaming in Maryland. November revenue from blackjack, craps, roulette and other table games at Maryland Live and Hollywood Casino Perryville was $20.28 million — all but $1 million of it coming from Maryland Live. Year-over-year revenue was up at all three casinos that were already opened at this time last year. But the largest gain was at Maryland Live — by far the state’s biggest casino, with 4,328 slot machines and 174 gaming tables (including poker). It had a revenue jump of more than 55 percent from last November. More than $26 million of the November gambling revenue goes into the state’s Education Trust Fund, which has collected nearly $290 million from Maryland’s four casinos this year.

MGM National Harbor opens amid a perilous casino glut and big shift in gambling culture

MGM Resorts International opens its $1.4 billion casino at National Harbor on Thursday night amid jackpot-level excitement and expectations for Maryland’s final and glitziest gambling palace. Soaring 24 stories over the Potomac River and spanning five city blocks, the gleaming glass complex promises to deliver Las Vegas-style gambling, hundreds of millions in tax revenue and 4,000 new jobs. But as thousands of people stream into MGM National Harbor for the first time, there is serious concern among industry analysts and fiscal watchdogs that Maryland and other states desperate for tax dollars have oversaturated the East Coast with casinos. MGM National Harbor, just off the Capital Beltway near the Wilson Bridge, is Maryland’s sixth casino, with two others about an hour’s drive up Interstate 95 in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore. From Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, there are dozens more. At least seven additional casinos are to open by the end of 2018. The problem, experts say, is that opening more casinos does not necessarily create more gamblers. Gallup surveys dating to 1996 show that the number of U.S. casino-goers has fluctuated between 24 percent and 30 percent of the population even as the number of states with casinos has swelled to 40. Meanwhile, the industry is facing daunting demographic changes. Slot machine players — a large and highly profitable bloc — are aging, leaving casinos chasing younger customers who think slots are prehistoric and are content spending Friday nights playing iPhone poker while binge-watching “Westworld.” “What you have is a bit of a perfect storm,” said Keith Foley, a gambling analyst for Moody’s Investors Service, who last year wrote a report titled “The Walls Are Closing In on Regional Casinos.” In Maryland, casinos last year generated more than $487 million in tax revenue, a 16 percent increase from 2014, when the Horseshoe casino in Baltimore opened its doors. But that opening reverberated 13 miles away in Anne Arundel County, with Maryland Live’s state market share shrinking from 70 percent to 56 percent, according to data compiled by the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Regionally, states are cannibalizing one another’s gambling business, siphoning tax revenue used for education and other public benefits. The most catastrophic example is Atlantic City, which is near bankruptcy because of casino expansion in Pennsylvania — which has suffered because of expansion of gambling in Maryland. The Rockefeller Institute of Government, a policy research center at the State University of New York, issued a report this year warning about a “pattern of deterioration” in tax revenue because of the geographic expansion. “States expand gambling in the hope that they’ll mimic the successes of early adopting states,” the report said, “but the more gambling expands, the more likely it is that economic and revenue gains will be eroded due to competition.” Casino gambling on the East Coast became a case of “keeping up with the Joneses” in the early 2000s, as state legislators grew weary of watching potential tax dollars travel to Atlantic City casinos, then generating nearly $6 billion a year in revenue. Tight budgets during the Great Recession heightened interest. Pennsylvania legalized casino-style gambling in 2006. Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, New York and others quickly followed — either starting with slot machines or adding table games alongside existing slots. By 2013, there were 55 casinos, slot halls or racetrack locations with casino games in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. “You have these dense locations all within close proximity with each other,” said Foley, the Moody’s analyst. “They all saw the potential of keeping this revenue within their own borders.” If one casino was good, two were better, three were great — and now Maryland has six, making it one of the most concentrated casino markets in the country. State lawmakers have authorized 16,500 slot machines in the state, which is 12,407 square miles. Maryland gaming officials acknowledge the abundance of gambling options. “It’s very much a fact that the Northeast market is saturated, and that there is more supply coming on,” said Gordon Medenica, director of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. But officials and casino executives say that Maryland’s geography is an advantage. The state is at the very southern edge of the casino glut, with little competition beyond, particularly in Virginia, where casinos have been an impossible sell. That could change if legislators there get perturbed about losing tax dollars to Maryland casinos or if the newly recognized Pamunkey Indian tribe decides to open a gambling hall. MGM executives strenuously opposed federal recognition for the Pamunkey, a tiny tribe east of Richmond that claims Pocahontas as an ancestor. MGM National Harbor is targeting the wealthy Northern Virginia suburbs. Company executives say that the Vegas-style resort offerings — celebrity chefs, a concert hall, more than 300 hotel rooms and luxury suites — will draw not just locals, but also tourists visiting the nation’s capital and even gamblers from other states with casinos. “We think our integrated resort and casino is really unlike anything in this market,” said MGM National Harbor’s general manager, Bill Boasberg. “I think once we unveil the facility, people will really understand why we’ll be a such an attractive destination.” The Horseshoe and Maryland Live will almost certainly be squeezed by the new casino, according to analysts. Lawmakers and gambling officials acknowledged as much in approving the MGM project, agreeing to sweeten revenue-sharing agreements for slot machines. Horseshoe will keep 46 percent of slot revenue, up 7 percentage points. Maryland Live will keep 49 percent, up 8 percentage points. Medenica, the state’s gambling agency director, said taxpayers won’t lose because of the strong gains expected by MGM National Harbor — if, of course, it works out that way. “Back in the day, it used to be that if you built a casino, people would come,” said Foley, the Moody’s analyst. “But nothing is a slam dunk anymore.” Not only is there intense regional competition, but casino owners are also confronting demographic, technological and cultural changes in which the odds are not necessarily with the house. They built their businesses and organizational culture in a world of far fewer entertainment options. David G. Schwartz, director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research, offered a personal example. He bought a copy of the hit video game Civilization V for $12.50. He has racked up more than 450 hours of playing time. “That’s a ridiculously good buy,” he said. “You could spend $100 in a casino and not even last an hour.” And it’s not just gambling. It’s Netflix, which streamed 42.5 billion hours of content last year. It’s smartphones, which offer thousands of multiplayer games. It’s fantasy sports, now a multibillion-dollar industry. It’s online gambling, however that shakes out. And it’s those hard-to-please millennials, who crave authentic experiences, transparency, and fairness — words not usually associated with casinos. “When in a casino, the 35-and-younger demographic are much more likely to take part in non-gaming activities,” Alex Bumazhny, a Fitch Ratings analyst, wrote last year. The problem is that restaurants, clubs and other amenities have much thinner profit margins than the casino floor. And if millennials want to eat foodie food or lounge at hip clubs, why would they drive (or take Uber) to a massive, crowded, noisy casino? Ask these questions of just about anyone connected to casinos, and the answer almost always begins, “That’s a great question.” One idea: skill-based games. In Atlantic City, the Borgata added a basketball free-throw shooting contest. Other casinos are adding skill-based games to electronic slot machines — shooting, puzzles, less slot machine _ding ding ding_ and more Angry Birds- style competition. Maryland does not allow such games, but the state’s gambling agency says it is working on the issue. Amid all the industry change and competition, Boasberg, the MGM National Harbor general manager, said one important aspect of life hasn’t and won’t change. “We all still have a fundamental need to be entertained,” he said. But where? And for how long? In Maryland, after several months of year-over-year revenue growth at 3 percent or higher, revenue at the state’s casinos rose by just 0.8 percent in October. Maybe it’s just a momentary blip. But given that the house always wins, one thing is certain: It’s not because the players are improving. **Read more:** ‘He is a thief’: Little League teammates go to war over fortune made in youth baseball Bill Dean throws wild Georgetown parties. Now a rape is alleged at one of them. A Marine fights to prove he’s innocent of sexual misconduct. Then a lost cellphone is found. ‘Let’s party like it’s 1933’: Inside the disturbing alt-right world of Richard Spencer

Maryland voters legalized full-fledged casino gambling Tuesday, embracing a plan to bring a slice of Las Vegas to the doorstep of the nation’s capital, as well as transforming Maryland into one of the most concentrated casino markets nationwide. With more than 98 percent of precincts reporting, the measure held a sizable advantage. Voters’ approval of Question 7 greatly expands the state’s fledgling, slots-only casino industry, allowing Maryland Live! and two other sites to stay open 24 hours a day and by early next year to offer dice and card games such as craps, black jack and roulette. But the full magnitude of the measure will be felt in coming years, when in 2016, a towering casino could rise from National Harbor over the District skyline and motorists traveling a 44-mile stretch between Baltimore and Washington would encounter three casinos, each with an array of table games and more slot machines than any single casino on the Vegas Strip. In plodding toward a decision, Maryland voters weathered an unprecedented blizzard of political ads. In three short months since state lawmakers sent the issue to the ballot, campaigns funded largely by out-of-state gaming interests shattered every record for spending on a Maryland election The two sides spent more than $90 million — rivaling the total amount Republicans and Democrats together had spent in Maryland over the past 14 years to wage four hotly contested races for governor. Looked at another way, it eclipsed Maryland’s entire universe of political spending. It is more than the candidates for governor, comptroller and attorney general; the 404 candidates for the House of Delegates; the 114 candidates for state Senate; the 16 major-party nominees for the U.S. House of Representatives; and the four for the U.S. Senate spent altogether on elections to fill those offices’ current terms. In the title fight, MGM Resorts will go down as the victor over Penn National Gaming. MGM is the largest casino operator in Las Vegas, and its spending to support the measure has positioned it as a favorite to develop an $800 million casino and resort at National Harbor. If it does, analysts say, it could be the most lucrative casino on the East Coast and Penn National stands to lose a significant share of its revenue from Washington-area gamblers who now travel to its Charles Town casino in West Virginia. “The people of Maryland have delivered a message: Sorting through an onslaught of dishonesty, voters chose to support progress,” said MGM chairman and chief executive Jim Murren. The defeat breaks a string of ballot-box successes that has enabled Penn to limit competition through the midwest. In Maryland, it bankrolled not only a ballot-issue committee that waged a nonstop ad blitz, but also put a local mayor, black community leaders and others in Prince George’s County on its payroll to speak out against the measure Penn’s line of attack — mostly centered on the uncertainties of whether more gambling would translate into higher spending on classrooms — appeared to resonate with voters early on. A Post poll in mid-October found widespread doubt that the measure would boost education funding as advertised.But after Penn’s message won over a majority among early voters, those who turned out to the polls on Tuesday backed the measure, including in Prince George’s, which had to endorse the measure for a casino to move forward there. Political proponents appeared to gain traction in the closing days of the campaign by casting the decision as one about protecting Maryland jobs and revenue. They pointed to estimates from state analysts that say it could bring in $150 million annually for education by 2016, although similar estimates have proved overly optimistic from the state’s current casinos. The advocates also claim it could create some 12,000 new direct and indirect jobs. Polls in recent weeks made clear that the ad deluge would make for a close vote — closer than in 2008, when Maryland voters overwhelmingly endorsed building five slots-only casinos. Then, casino owners mostly banded together, viewing Maryland’s nascent market as lucrative for all. But in the years since, the casino market in the mid-Atlantic has stratified. To protect their competing interests, gaming companies spent like never before in a Maryland election. MGM poured nearly $41 million into a campaign backing the measure. Penn spent even more, seeking to protect its revenue from gamblers in Maryland who now travel to West Virginia. With millions more from the Peterson Cos., the developer of National Harbor, and Caesars Entertainment, which wants table games at a Harrah’s-brand casino slated for Baltimore, the total spent for and against the measure topped $90 million, according to campaign reports filed Monday. Despite such staggering comparisons, Maryland’s brief history as a gambling destination suggests the amount — and perhaps much more — could have been justified by casino accountants. Maryland Live!, with its nearly 5,000 slot machines, has generated gross revenue of $128 million since it debuted at an outlet mall in Anne Arundel County in June. For MGM to recoup its costs, a casino at National Harbor would need to clear a fraction of that, about $112,000 a day in its first year. Similarly, some analysts say Penn National stands to lose a comparable amount. On Tuesday, Gov. Martin O’Malley and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), both of whom invested extensive political capital supporting the measure, made one last pitch to voters entering a polling station at Kettering Baptist Church. “It’s an issue of whether we want to keep Maryland cash in Maryland or whether we want to continue to wave good bye to it in West Virginia,” O’Malley said. A voter listening to O’Malley wasn’t convinced. “It just doesn’t add up,” said Clayton Austin, 54, a federal employee who said he voted against Question 7. “I don’t see how it is going to help our school system.”

Maryland casinos hit jackpot: State’s 4 venues collected $69 million in May

Maryland’s burgeoning casino business is on a roll, generating more revenue than expected, according to figures released Wednesday by the state’s Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. The state’s four casinos collected $69 million in gross gambling revenue last month. Nearly $50 million of it came from slots, mostly at the casino Maryland Live, which shattered another monthly record. Since July, gamblers have plunked $511 million into Maryland’s slot machines, which now number 6,831 across the state. That amount already exceeds the state’s projection of $498 million in revenue, with a full month left to go until the end of the current fiscal year. The better-than-predicted performance comes as welcome news in a state where lottery sales have slipped by about 2 percent and will finish with a decline for the first time in 16 years. Stephen Martino, head of the Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, said in a statement that he was pleased. “While we have seen a slight decrease in lottery revenues, the launch of table games and the opening of two additional casinos has increased the overall benefit to the state, particularly to the Education Trust Fund which supports pre-K-12 public education.” Slots have pumped $250 million into the fund in fiscal 2013, surpassing estimates. Live-action table games — approved by Maryland voters in November but only recently added to Hollywood Casino Perryville, Maryland Live Casino and the new Rocky Gap Casino Resort — have brought in almost $31 million in gross gambling revenue, nearly $20 million of it last month. Most of that money came from Maryland Live, where 122 live-action tables generated more than $17.5 million in the first full month of operation. The casino, which opened a year ago Thursday at Arundel Mills, collected nearly $37.5 million from its 4,319 slot machines. With a total haul of $55 million — the most ever in Maryland — the suburban property generated more than $1.7 million per day last month. More than half of that was collected for state and local taxes. “The state has been a wonderful partner in achieving all of our success and our goals,” said Robert J. Norton, Maryland Live’s president and general manager, adding, “Understand that they are the lion’s share of the partnership.” Since opening last year, Maryland Live — one of the country’s largest commercial casinos — has paid nearly $300 million in gambling taxes. Look for more in the coming year. Norton said the $55 million in a month was hardly unexpected, and that Maryland Live is adding a two-story, 50-tables-plus poker room this summer. “I think there’s room for growth,” he said of the property’s revenue, which is among the highest on the East Coast. Hollywood Casino Perryville reported nearly $7 million in slots revenue and $1.6 million from its modest table-games operation, including the state’s only poker room. The Casino at Ocean Downs collected nearly $4.8 from its 800 slot machines; it doesn’t plan to add table games until after summer. The new Rocky Gap Casino Resort, which opened May 22, generated just under $800,000 in its first 10 days of operation. The western Maryland casino has 554 slots and 10 gaming tables.

Meet the new year, same as the old year at Maryland Live Casino

Maryland Live Casino continues to live above the $50 million-a-month line, hauling in $53.7 million in gross gambling revenue in January, according to data released Wednesday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University It was Maryland Live’s ninth consecutive month with pretax revenues of $50 million or more, a streak that began once the Arundel Mills casino launched its massively successful table games division. In January, the casino’s 122 live-action tables (blackjack, craps, roulette, etc.) and 52-table poker room generated $20.9 million in gross revenue — its highest figure yet for table games. The casino’s 4,270 slot machines generated about $32.8 million in gross revenue in January, a decrease of nearly 9 percent from the casino’s January 2013 slots haul. But Maryland Live was operating nearly 500 more machines at the beginning of 2013; the casino’s win-per-unit actually increased, from $244.10 per machine per day in January 2013 to $247.70 per machine per day last month, according to the state.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Maryland’s four casinos generated $66.2 million in total gambling revenue in January. About $33 million was collected in taxes, including more than $25 million that went to the Education Trust Fund.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University In a year-to-year comparison (excluding Rocky Gap Casino Resort, which opened in Western Maryland in May), total casino revenue in Maryland increased by nearly $19 million or 43 percent, though all of the increase — and then some — came from table games at Maryland Live and Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County. Slots revenues statewide were down by nearly 7 percent from last January. Maryland’s gambling-revenue landscape will expand and shift later this year, when the Horseshoe Casino opens in downtown Baltimore — and again in 2016, when MGM National Harbor opens in Prince George’s County.

Md. casino revenue has jumped since MGM opened, but nearby venues took a hit

MGM National Harbor has helped boost the state’s overall gaming revenue since it opened Dec. 8, but the newcomer appears to be eating into the profits of Maryland’s other top casinos. Monthly casino revenue rose an average of 37.8 percent in Maryland since MGM began operating, according to the state Lottery and Gaming Control Agency’syear-to-year comparisons. The industry, which sends some of its profits to fund schools and other public programs, set its record in the state by generating $141 million in March. But monthly revenue for Maryland’s five other casinos has dropped an average of 11.8 percent since December, largely driven by dips of 9.4 percent for Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore and 16.6 percent for Maryland Live in Anne Arundel County — the two gaming facilities closest to MGM. Casino officials and elected leaders say they are not alarmed by the numbers, which fall roughly in line with the projections made by state consultants after Maryland voters legalized table games and approved the addition of a sixth casino in a 2012 referendum. “These people are still raking in money, just less than they would have otherwise,” said Del. Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery), who co-chairs the state legislature’s gaming-oversight committee. Maryland Live generated $46 million from slots and table games in May, while Horseshoe pulled in $24 million. Those totals, while hefty, represent declines of 22.3 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year. MGM, which has consistently outperformed all other casinos in the state since its first full month of operations, pulled in about $51 million. “Obviously, the presence of a new casino in Maryland has an effect on the revenues of the existing casinos,” said Jonathan Cordish, principal and finance director for the Cordish Cos., which owns and operates Maryland Live. “We will continue to compete and reinvest for the long term.” A $200 million expansion of Maryland Live scheduled for completion next year includes a new 17-story hotel and convention center with a high-end spa, spaces for live entertainment and private gaming, and new restaurants. The casino also has been offering special promotions, including giving away five Tesla electric cars for its anniversary this month and guaranteeing jackpots up to $100,000 every weekend in June. Horseshoe is banking in part on its participation in the country’s oldest nationwide player loyalty and rewards program, run by parent company Caesar Entertainment, to remain competitive in a crowded market. Officials with the casino say the establishment’s proximity to Baltimore sports stadiums, and the city’s plans for a new entertainment hub in the surrounding area, could help as well. “As the southern gateway expands and becomes a diverse entertainment district, Horseshoe is poised to take advantage of the significant growth and development,” said Erin Chamberlin, the casino’s senior vice president and general manager. When they approved the gambling expansion in 2012, state lawmakers gave Maryland Live and Horseshoe lower tax rates than MGM for slots revenue, acknowledging that the two older establishments were likely to be most affected by the launch of the new venue in Prince George’s County. MGM pays a rate of 56 percent, compared to 51 percent for Maryland Live and 54 percent for Horseshoe. Industry experts say West Virginia casinos also have reason to be concerned about Maryland’s 2012 gambling expansion, because they now have to compete with venues across the border that offer table games rather than just slots. Horseshoe, Maryland Live, MGM National Harbor and Rocky Gap Casino, located in Allegany County, are all less than 80 miles from Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. Rocky Gap Casino, located in Allegany County, has continued to thrive since MGM opened, with monthly gaming revenue up an average of nearly 10 percent since December compared with the same period a year before. The Casino at Ocean Downs, which does not have table games and is located on the Eastern Shore, has seen an average monthly increase of more than 3 percent over that span. The Hollywood Casino Perryville, in Cecil County, saw a decline, with its monthly revenue from slots and tables dropping an average of 3.5 percent. Casino gambling generated more than $1 billion in gross revenue for the state in fiscal 2016, with 35 percent of that going to the state’s Education Trust Fund, 5 percent to horse racing, nearly 4 percent to grants for local jurisdictions affected by casinos and about 1 percent for Maryland’s small, minority- and women-owned businesses account. This year, industry lobbyists successfully pushed state lawmakers to approve legislation that allows gaming establishments to carry over losses on slots and table games from one day to the next for purposes of determining how much they owe to the state. Legislative analysts estimated that the measure could reduce revenue for the Education Trust Fund by more than $1.8 million a year. But supporters said it would encourage casinos to offer more high-stakes games by reducing their potential losses, in turn attracting more big-money players and increasing revenue in the long run. Luedtke suggested that there will be little appetite for similar breaks in 2018. “I doubt the legislature is in any mood to cut taxes for casinos, and I think the casinos know that,” he said. Cordish said Maryland Live will not seek legislative or regulatory changes next year. **Read more:** ****This poker pro is going all in for MGM and its rich clientele House of Cards: Seven guys in a poker crash pad near BWI airport For gambling addicts, new Md. casinos amplify the ‘siren call’

The end of a hot streak for Maryland casinos?

Maryland’s five casinos closed out 2014 with $85.6 million in total monthly revenue, up more than an eye popping 31 percent compared to December 2013. But that figure is also remarkable for another reason: it marks the first time the state’s casino revenues did not set a new record. One month does not make a trend make. And it is almost certain to rebound if not soon then when MGM National Harbor opens next year. However, the dip was a slightly ominous end to an otherwise dramatic year during which the Free State became the pride of the casino industry, while Atlantic City, gambling’s crown jewel of the east, became a black eye. In Maryland, revenues have been marching steadily upwards — $76 million, $80 million, $82 million, $87 million, $90 million — making the Free State the envy of the gaming industry. The same could not be said for Macau, where casinos saw revenue drop by more than 30 percent. Much of  that growth has taken place on Russell Street, at the 4-month-old Horseshoe Casino. Excluding Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, lottery commission figures show, is that year-to-year revenue for state’s four other casinos combined fell by 3.6 percent. Here is a breakdown of the December numbers: Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County generated $6 million, down 7 percent compared to December 2013. Horseshoe Casino Baltimore generated $22.9 million. Maryland Live at Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover generated $50.2 million, down by 4.4 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. Casino at Ocean Downs generated $3.4 million, down .5 percent from December 2013. Maryland Live continues to dominate and was responsible for more than half of the state’s tally. But the standout last month turned out to be Rocky Gap Casino Resort which generated $3 million, up 17 percent. Its November revenues were also up more than 5 percent compared to the previous year. That upward trajectory is likely to inspire a few sighs of relief in Annapolis. As my colleagues J. Freedom du Lac and John Wagner reported in 2013, Maryland’s comptroller once called the debt-ridden lodge, with 220 rooms, a full-service spa, and an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, “one of the biggest white elephants ever imposed on the taxpayers of this state.”    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico After pumping more than $16 million in state money, racked up combined operating losses of more than $10 million in fiscal 2010 through 2012, du Lac and Wagner said. Lawmakers put slots there in hopes of turning the place around. For calendar year 2014, about $360 million of the gross slot machine and table game revenue went to the Education Trust Fund, state figures show. Casino operators got to keep about $264 million.

Maryland Live’s gambling revenues strong, despite calendar, Old Man Winter

Not even snow and a shortage of days could snap Maryland Live Casino’s hot streak. The airplane-terminal-sized gambling hall at Arundel Mills hauled in $52.3 million in gross gambling revenue in February, according to figures released Wednesday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. It was the casino’s 10th consecutive month with pretax revenues of $50 million or more — a streak that began last May, the first full month of operations for Maryland Live’s table-games division.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University The state’s largest casino generated $18.3 million in gross revenues on its 122 live-action tables (blackjack, craps, roulette, etc.) and in its 52-table poker room — a 12 percent drop from January, when Maryland Live posted its highest-ever table games total. The casino also pulled more than $34 million out of its 4,322 slot machines, a slight increase over the previous month but down significantly from last February, when Maryland Live generated more than $38 million on about 330 fewer machines.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University State regulators approved an additional 12 table games for Maryland Live last month, though they have yet to open for action. Maryland’s four casinos generated just over $66 million in total gambling revenue in February. About $34 million was collected in taxes, including more than $26 million that went to the Education Trust Fund. The casinos have sent more than $211 million to the education fund during the current fiscal year. In a year-to-year comparison (excluding Rocky Gap Casino Resort, which opened in Western Maryland last May), total casino revenue in the state increased by more than $15 million, or 31 percent, though all of the increase – and then some — came from table games at Maryland Live and Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County. Slots revenues statewide were down by 9 percent from last January.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Maryland’s gambling-revenue landscape will expand and shift in August or September, when the Horseshoe Casino opens in downtown Baltimore — and again in 2016, when MGM National Harbor opens in Prince George’s County.

No Powerball grand-prize winners, but tickets sold in Va., Md. win $1 million

Despite the recent Powerball frenzy in Washington and around the country, nobody bought a ticket matching all numbers for Saturday night’s drawing, officials said. But tickets carrying a $1 million prize were sold in Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland, the “second-tier” ticket was purchased at a Food Lion supermarket in Berlin, on the Eastern Shore, said state lottery spokeswoman Carole Everett. Million-dollar tickets must match the first five numbers drawn. Those who bought tickets for the Saturday drawing, with its estimated $900 million jackpot, need not spend too long mourning their dashed dreams. The next, even more potentially rewarding drawing, capable of creating even more expansive fantasies, will be held on Wednesday night. Tickets can be bought until 9:59 p.m. that day. As of Sunday night, the jackpot was expected to be $1.3 billion, with an $806 million cash value, according to the organization that runs the multistate drawing. This, said Everett, is thought by lottery officials to be a world-record jackpot. On Saturday, Everett said, more than $11 million was spent in Maryland on tickets. She expected sales may be even bigger for the billion-dollar drawing. “Heck, yes,” she said. The huge jackpots are attracting “everybody . . . people who don’t play, infrequent players,” she said, adding that people were calling to ask “How do you play?” Virginia Lottery spokeswoman Jill Vaughan said she expected that as many as 21,000 tickets a minute would be sold for the upcoming drawing. A winning ticket must match five numbers, each ranging from 1 to 69, and a sixth number, the Powerball number, which ranges from 1 to 26. The odds of matching all the numbers are 1 in 292 million. Saturday’s winning numbers were 16, 19, 32, 34 and 57, with a Powerball number of 13.

Winners in the latest casino expansion, but for how long?

Slot machines don’t differ much from one casino to the next, except for location. The rise of convenience gambling has created a new order of winners and losers. Maryland’s five casinos, including the nearly two-month-old Horseshoe Baltimore, have upended longstanding regional monopolies in West Virginia and Delaware. The Quaker State has contributed to the demise of Atlantic City, which has become the biggest casualty of what is being called the third major expansion of gambling in the nation’s history.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Lately, though, there are signs that the bloom is wearing off the winners. The past two months have seen a drumbeat of headlines such as, “Ohio Casino Revenues Plummet,” and “Pa. slot revenue down for fiscal year.” At first glance, Maryland may seem to be an exception. Total casino revenue is still growing. In September, the state’s five casinos generated $82 million in revenue, $17 million more than a year earlier, the state lottery and gaming control agency reported. But that was only $2 million more than in August, even though September was the first full month of operation for Horseshoe Baltimore. The casino by Ravens Stadium raked in about $22 million in September. But it was at the expense of its closest competitor, Maryland Live! by Arundel Mills Mall, which saw its total revenue from slots and table games drop of about 10 percent, compared to a year earlier, the state reported. So while Maryland casino revenue hits another record, most of the gains no longer consist of millions that once would have been lost to Delaware and West Virginia, but shifting millions of dollars 12 miles up the road from Hanover to Baltimore. An impact study funded by the gaming control agency predicts MGM National Harbor will have a similar, but smaller effect on Maryland Live. Some casino operators have been saying the mid-Atlantic casino market was oversaturated even before Horseshoe Baltimore opened. But other analysts say the same thing has been said many times before, only to be contradicted by yet another expansion of gambling. For a glimpse of how casino profits have shifted from one side of the Mid- Atlantic casino market to another, here are some annual revenue figures from UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research and from recent news accounts.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico All figures for state casino revenues are for the calendar year unless otherwise noted.  **Delaware**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Slots 2012 $447,757,700 2013 $373,996,300 Down 16 percent Table games 2012 $520,548,888 2013 $432,058,438 Down 17 percent  **Maryland** *    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico 2102 $194,512,532 2013** $626,477,751 Up 222 percent *(fiscal year totals) **(table games were introduced in 2013) In a year-to-year comparison – excluding Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, which opened in August 2014 – September 2014 casino revenue decreased from September 2013 by $5,297,593, or 8.11 percent, according to the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Horseshoe Baltimore generated about $22 million in September, its first full month of operations, bringing the state total to $82 million, up $17 million compared to a year earlier.  **New Jersey**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico 2012    $3,051,436 2013    $2,862,069 Down 6.2 percent. ****    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico **Pennsylvania**    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico 2012    $3,158,317,863 2013    $3,113,928,591 Down 1.4 percent “The state in aggregate has had only three monthly gains since the fall of 2012, illustrating the persistence of the slot revenue slump that is also hitting other states.” — Harold Brubaker, Philadelphia Inquirer.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico  **West Virginia***    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico 2012    $921,140,000 2013    $796,194,000 Down 14 percent *(fiscal year totals)

Maryland’s lottery and casino chief resigns

Stephen Martino, the director of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, is leaving his job later this month to become a partner at a private law firm in Baltimore. In a letter sent to his staff Tuesday morning, Martino wrote that he informed Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s office yesterday that he is resigning his position and that his last day in office will be March 27. Martino was appointed as director of the agency in 2010 by then governor, Martin O’Malley. “Governor Hogan thanks Stephen Martino for his dedicated service as director of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency,” said Gov. Hogan’s press secretary Erin Montgomery in a prepared statement. She added that the Hogan administration is actively searching for a new director for the agency. Martino, who will take a job as a partner with Duane Morris in its Baltimore office, oversaw the arrival and implementation of casino gambling in Maryland. Five casinos have opened in Maryland since 2010 and another, the $925 million dollar MGM National Harbor taking shape in Prince George’s county, is scheduled to open next year. “It has been an honor to work with you and serve the State of Maryland during this time of extraordinary change for the agency and the state’s gaming policy,” Martino wrote in the email to his staff. “We’ve successfully opened five casinos that have increased revenues to Maryland’s public education system and employed thousands. The traditional lottery is one of the most accomplished in the world, annually sending more than half a billion dollars to the state general fund. And, all of our work has been done with integrity, transparency and a commitment to responsibility. I’m proud of what we have done together and appreciate your considerable efforts, which have been the bedrock of our success.”

Maryland raising stakes in casino wars with Delaware and West Virginia

For years, casinos in West Virginia and Delaware siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars in gambling revenue from Marylanders. Now Maryland is poised to win back increasing numbers of those gamblers — and their millions. Next week, the state’s largest casino will introduce blackjack, craps, roulette and other live-   action games. Maryland Live will offer 24-hour play at 122 tables, more than Delaware’s three racetrack casinos combined and more, too, than West Virginia’s cash cow, Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. The debut of those table games will mark the latest step in Maryland’s dramatic expansion of commercial gambling. It will also mark an escalation of the casino wars — a battle for the hearts, minds and money of Maryland gamblers. Maryland Live already has an opening salvo planned. Motorists driving east on U.S. Route 340 from Hollywood Casino will soon see a new billboard announcing table games at the casino at Arundel Mills mall. The message to gamblers will be clear: You can stop leaving the Free State. And thousands are expected to heed that call. “Maryland is getting what the other states already have, which is going to make it very difficult for casinos in West Virginia and Delaware,” said Mark Nichols, an economics professor with the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada at Reno. “The only way they can keep those Maryland residents from staying in Maryland is offering incentives or differentiated products that somehow make it worthwhile to travel. But almost anything they try, Maryland can copy. I’m not sure there’s much they can do.” Still, they are trying. The casinos in Delaware and Charles Town added table games in 2010 to counter Maryland’s legalization of slots. Facing pressure from a nascent Pennsylvania gambling industry as well, Delaware added sports betting in 2009, although it is limited to National Football League parlays. Last year, Delaware lawmakers passed the Gaming Competitiveness Act, providing nearly $8 million in licensing-fee relief to the state’s three racetrack casinos so they would have more money for promotion and capital improvements. Dover Downs Hotel and Casino already features live harness racing, NASCAR races, a conference center and a spa. Delaware Park offers golf and runs regular poker tournaments. Executives at Dover Downs and Delaware Park declined to discuss what they are going to do to appeal to Maryland gamblers. But Al Britton, the general manager at Hollywood Casino in West Virginia, said his casino is ready for its smackdown with Maryland Live. The property has been expanded, with a hotel built and a steakhouse and other restaurants added. And it has been re-branded, with Charles Town Slots becoming Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. Hollywood Charles Town serves complimentary alcohol to players and allows smoking in the casino. By contrast, Maryland Live and the state’s other casinos are prohibited from comping cocktails and are nonsmoking facilities. “We’ve been preparing for competition from Maryland for years now,” Britton said last week. “Quite frankly, we thought we’d have competition in Maryland much sooner. We feel like we already have all the amenities we need.” Officials at Dover Downs have long been wary of Maryland casinos, particularly Maryland Live, which has been generating more than $1 million per day in slots revenue since it opened in June. Ed Sutor, Dover Downs’ president and chief executive, declined requests for an interview. Last year he called Maryland Live “the 800-pound gorilla in the room,” according to a Delaware State News report. “Fifty percent of our business comes from Maryland, and 45 percent of our business lives within 50 miles of Arundel Mills,” Sutor said at Video Lottery Advisory Council meeting. “That is going to be a significant hit to us.” And that was before Maryland voters approved table games and 24-hour operations, in addition to a sixth casino, to be in Prince George’s County. Delaware state Rep. Darryl M. Scott, a Democrat whose district is home to Dover Downs, said the increased competition next door is terrifying. Business at Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway and Casino is already down. “We could be facing dire consequences if we don’t do something to stabilize the industry,” Scott said. “There may come a point where Dover Downs has to make a determination about its viability. The increased competition is a very significant threat to our jobs and to our state’s revenues.” Delaware’s casinos, which employ about 3,000 people, generated more than $230 million in tax revenue in fiscal 2012. But slots revenue is off by nearly 25 percent statewide over the past five years. And in February, Maryland Live pulled $38 million out of its 4,750 slot machines — about $6 million more than Delaware’s three casinos combined. Now comes another layer of competition — table games, which debuted last month in Maryland at the modestly sized Hollywood Casino in Perryville, just off Interstate 95 in Cecil County. “You’ll need a pretty good excuse to drive past a Maryland casino to come to one of ours now,” Delaware Lottery Director Vernon Kirk said last week. “It used to be just us and Atlantic City, but we have a proximity problem now. “We couldn’t have the monopoly forever.” Six years ago, as Maryland wrestled with the idea of legalizing slots gambling, Thomas E. Perez, then the state’s secretary of labor, licensing and regulation, wrote in a report that Free State residents were losing $350 million to $400 million per year in Delaware and West Virginia. Their losses, Perez wrote in a report to Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), translated to about $150 million in annual tax revenue. For the casinos in the neighboring states, Maryland looked like a big, fat ATM, full of players and money. So when the casino expansion referendum was on the state’s ballot last year, Penn National Gaming, the owner of Hollywood Casino Charles Town, spent more than $40 million in an effort to defeat the measure and protect its crown-jewel property. A political action committee partly funded by MGM — which hopes to build a destination casino at Maryland’s National Harbor — responded with a parody ad featuring a remake of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” “Maryland cash/bring it back/to the state where it comes from,” the song went. “Not West Virginia/Don’t let ’em spin ya/Bring it back/Our Maryland cash.” The referendum measure passed, and so the pressure is on at Hollywood Charles Town, which, according to a private study financed by MGM, made more than $1 billion from Marylanders over the past decade. Britton, the casino’s general manager, said his property will hold on to many of its Maryland gamblers. “Even for those who may be a little closer to Maryland Live strictly in terms of miles, we believe we’re more convenient to get to,” he said. “There’s lots of issues with traffic around Arundel Mills. We’re a much more leisurely drive, and the access is easier.” Industry analysts say that proximity and ease of access are two of the most significant factors when gamblers are choosing between casinos with similar offerings. Hollywood Charles Town, which has 109 table games, a newly installed 50-table poker room and about 3,500 slot machines, is more than an hour’s drive from Rockville. But it treats the Washington area like a local market, advertising heavily here in Metro stations, on billboards and elsewhere. When Maryland Live opened as a slots-only casino last year, Britton said, his property’s revenue declined by about 15 percent. “It was certainly far from doomsday. We fared even better than we projected,” he said. “Any time competition is added, you see short-term negatives. But there’s a pretty healthy market in this area. We feel fairly confident in our ability to compete.” On a recent Friday afternoon, cars began to fill the parking lot at Delaware Park, about 10 miles past the Maryland-Delaware state line. Based on an informal count, roughly one of every six vehicles in the lot had a Maryland tag. Inside, there was plenty of talk at the blackjack tables and in the poker room about how the Maryland players are not coming as much since Hollywood Casino in Perryville became the first property in the state to launch table games. Crowds had been pretty sparse of late, dealers and players said. Already, Perryville is capturing some of the Maryland gamblers who used to keep going up I-95 to Wilmington. For those who did not stop in Cecil County this time, there is a Hollywood billboard directed at drivers coming back into Maryland. “Table games,” it reads. “Now playing. Hollywood Casino, 20 miles south, Exit 93.” Perryville is a modest property. There are just 12 table games, plus an eight-table poker area. But the demand has been off the charts. About 100 people were waiting for a seat in the poker room on one recent weekend, and the casino is planning to add tables. Brian Bohlayer, a high school math teacher who lives in Owings Mills, said he has seen a lot of familiar faces in Perryville. “Every time I’ve sat down at a poker table, I’ve recognized people I played with at Delaware Park,” Bohlayer said. Then he added the words officials in the Blue Hen State dread hearing most: “I haven’t been back to Delaware Park since Perryville opened.”

Maryland faces millions in costs after paying more for slot devices than expected

When Maryland voted to legalize slot machines, officials opted to acquire the games of chance themselves so that the state would be responsible for the integrity of the gambling. It’s not looking like a winning bet. Maryland, one of only a few states where slot machines are not purchased by casino owners, is facing tens of millions of dollars in unanticipated costs that are expected to eat into state proceeds for years to come. The state is paying an average of about $10,000 a slot machine per year to fill Maryland’s first three casinos, according to a Washington Post analysis. That’s more than double what officials estimated would be spent per machine in the coming year when lawmakers launched Maryland’s slots program in 2007. At the current rate, the state could spend $50 million a year more than projected by the time all five privately owned casinos are open with nearly 12,000 machines. With Maryland projecting budget shortfalls into the future, a less profitable slots program is certain to contribute to more difficult decisions on tax increases and spending cuts. Maryland’s experience highlights the difficulties in calculating the start-up costs of government-sanctioned gaming and forecasting the promised payoff. As Maryland’s third — and largest — casino prepares to debut in June in Anne Arundel County, some lawmakers are pushing to expand the program. The House of Delegates will hold a hearing Friday on whether to authorize a sixth casino, in a swath of western Prince George’s County, and to allow Las Vegas-style table games. Critics of the program say the higher machine price tag is just the latest in a string of broken promises about how much money slots would yield. Program officials acknowledge the added cost but say Maryland’s budget will still be considerably bolstered by the state’s embrace of casino-style gambling. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and other proponents have acknowledged that the program has yet to generate as much revenue as advertised, in large part because of the economic downturn. According to legislative staff, the five planned casinos are now expected to generate about $150 million a year less for education than the $660 million originally promoted — and to take at least a year longer than expected to reach that point. But lost in that accounting is what’s happening on the other side of the ledger: how much more the machines are costing — and will continue to cost. To entice customers with the latest games, casinos typically swap out machines every few years, creating a recurring expense for the life of the facility. According to the Maryland State Lottery Agency, $71.5 million a year, including some maintenance costs, is being spent to provide machines for the three casinos in Cecil, Worcester and Anne Arundel counties. That’s $10 million more than the original projected leasing costs to fill all five casinos in the coming year. The difference is being made up by increasingly larger appropriations to the budget of the lottery agency, which administers Maryland’s slots program. Stephen Martino, director of the lottery agency, said the 2007 cost estimate for procuring machines was based solely on the experience of Delaware. Of the 22 states with casinos, Delaware is one of only three besides Maryland that take responsibility for procuring slot machines. At the time, Delaware had a deal with manufacturers that was very favorable, Martino said, and Maryland has not been able to replicate it. Martino called the higher-than-expected expense “a cost of doing business,” noting that Maryland still expects to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year. “The machines are creating jobs and generating revenue for education in the state of Maryland, which was the point of the legislation,” he said. Martino, who arrived in 2010, offered a less robust defense of the state’s 2007 decision on ownership of machines, which he said lawmakers made to bring “greater integrity and transparency” to the program. Martino said that he respects their reasoning but that the added precaution probably wasn’t needed. That’s because slot machines in all Maryland casinos are connected to and monitored by a central computer system maintained by the state. “I don’t think it’s necessary that the state own or lease the machines for the state to achieve that high level of integrity or transparency,” Martino said. Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), among the more vocal critics of Maryland's slots program, put it less charitably, calling the 2007 decision “a well-intentioned but boneheaded mistake.” Although officials have highlighted the revenue generated by slots, “a lot more money than people realize is going the other way, out the door,” he said. By Franchot’s accounting, Maryland has yet to break even on slots, a program that voters ratified in 2008. The state Board of Public Works, on which Franchot sits, has approved a series of purchases and multi-year lease agreements on slot machines for Maryland’s first three casinos totaling $266.6 million. The money generated for state education programs and other priorities at Maryland’s first two casinos — both of which opened more than a year ago — is about $140 million, according to Franchot. The state’s balance sheet should start to look more favorable once Maryland Live!, the state’s third and by far largest casino, opens at Arundel Mills mall, not far from Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. The first of 4,750 slot machines started arriving this week on the floor of the massive casino, which stretches the length of three football fields. Once the facility is fully operational, legislative analysts project it will generate more than $450 million a year in revenue, about half of which will be earmarked for education programs. Joe Weinberg, president of Cordish, the project’s developer, said there were some initial “misgivings” about the state procurement of slot machines, given the variety and mix of offerings casinos like to present customers. “The arrangement is unusual, but the state has actually done a great job with it,” Weinberg said. “I can’t recall a machine we wanted and we couldn’t get from a dealer through the state.” The variety of offerings was evident during recent a walk through the floor of Hollywood Casino Perryville, Maryland’s first casino, which opened in the northeastern corner of the state in September 2010. The 1,500 machines there include many with pop culture themes, such as the movie “Jaws” and the Monkees. The casino also offers the more racy Playboy Hot Zone machines, on which players are rewarded for “big wins” with images of Playboy bunnies. A spokeswoman for Penn National Gaming, the facility’s owner, said it is the only one of 19 casinos the company operates across the United States and Canada where the state plays a similar role in procuring machines. Maryland has opted more recently to lease rather than buy machines, which gives operators more flexibility to swap out games that prove unpopular. But Maryland taxpayers own at least several hundred slot machines that casinos will be eager to discard in a few years. That raises another question for state officials: What to do with them when that time comes? “We haven’t crossed that bridge yet,” Martino said.

Record-setting lottery of $1.5 billion drawing tonight

The biggest lottery jackpot in history could hit $2 billion if there is no winner in Wednesday night’s drawing. No one has won the Powerball jackpot since Nov. 4, so it has been rolling over and over. And now it is at $1.5 billion — its biggest pot in the history of lotteries — and the next drawing is scheduled for 11 p.m. Wednesday. If no one wins that drawing, lottery officials said the jackpot will probably hit $2 billion for the Saturday drawing. Think Hawaii mansion, beachfront! Make that two mansions. For now, the jackpot’s $1.5 billion translates into a $930 million cash payment before taxes. In Maryland, a winner would get $616.1 million in cash after federal and state taxes. In the past few weeks, as the Powerball jackpot has grown — and grown and grown — people across the country have waited in long lines for tickets and dreamed of round-the-world trips, bigger homes, luxury cars and helping charities. Billboard signs advertising the big game can’t even list the jackpot’s value because they were meant to go up to $999 million only. _[The $1,500,000,000 Powerball jackpot is so big it doesn’t even fit on lottery billboards _ _]_ There’s been plenty of watercooler chatter about how to split the office pool. And what to do if you do in fact win (long shot) — take the annuity vs. the one-time, lump-sum payout. And authors have written advice for the masses for how to invest it. Note: Don’t spend it all at once on a garish Miami beachside mansion. But for some players — and even lottery officials who have been promoting the game — it has become an anxious wait, what’s jokingly called “lottery fatigue.” “We are excited, but even we are getting a little punchy,” said Carole Everett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. “We’re waiting for new numbers. And wondering, is it going to get bigger? This is uncharted territory.” _[A jackpot-rigging scandal is forgotten as Powerball fever sweeps the U.S.]_ The odds of winning the $1.5 billion jackpot are slim — 1 in 292 million, to say the least, but lottery officials said they expect there to be a winner — or winners — in Wednesday night’s drawing. Authorities said they believe that roughly 86 percent of all possible number combinations have been purchased. That leaves a small margin for not turning up a winner. “It is possible it won’t get hit, but it seems so unlikely,” Everett said. “We’re confident this is going to get hit somewhere.” For now, some lottery officials shared, shall we say, unique tales of where they’ve heard of past big winners hiding their tickets — in bras, behind pipes, in a Bible, in a plastic baggie in the freezer, in a bucket full of birdseed. Regardless of where a lottery ticket buyer hides it, officials remind you to sign it. And another tip — be sure your ticket matches the right lottery game. A group of about 40 cooks, waiters and valet drivers at a restaurant in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., thought they became millionaires Saturday night. But they realized later — after one of them quit his job — that the list of numbers they were looking at was from an earlier lottery drawing, on Jan. 6. Oops. The worker who quit is back at work, according to Fox 5, which was one of the first to report the story. __The Powerball game has been around since the 1990s and is played in 44 states, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the District. Twenty-seven people where Powerball is played won $1 million and $2 million prizes in the drawing from Jan. 9. [Sorry, Powerball dreamers: There’s no such thing as a ‘lucky store’] Lottery officials said they changed “the matrix” that goes into the Powerball game in October. It was a move to create larger jackpots, Everett said. The change means there is now a 1 in 25 chance of winning a lower-tier prize of, say, $1 million on down. And it means the odds are tougher for winning the bigger jackpot. Those odds went to 1 in 292 million from 1 in 176 million. Good luck.

Say no to a casino at Rosecroft Raceway

REMEMBER THE POT OF GOLD promised by Maryland’s gambling lobby less than a decade ago? Slot machines, they said, would deliver a practically bottomless bounty — $700 million or $800 million annually that casinos, once legalized, would pour into the public coffers, providing a panacea for the state’s budget deficit; paying for school upgrades; and rescuing the slumping horse racing industry. Why, the slots crowd enthused, gambling would even prevent sprawl by saving horse farms from predatory developers! More than three years after voters approved slots, reality has punctured all those promises. Under current projections, recently downsized by legislative analysts, the best that can be hoped for is $475 million in tax revenue from slots — over the next five years. Not exactly a cure-all in the context of the $30 billion in revenue the state will collect this year alone. Nonetheless, advocates are pushing an expansion in gambling, suggesting it will solve a new problem: the woeful shortage of good health care in Prince George’s County. Only by plonking down a gigantic casino at Rosecroft Raceway, just south of the District in Fort Washington, would tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue materialize — enough to fund a badly needed new county hospital. We were under the impression that hospitals got built in Maryland even before gambling was legalized at referendum in late 2008. But that hasn’t stopped Penn National Gaming, Rosecroft’s latest owner, and its allies in Annapolis, from promising that slots at Rosecroft — thousands of them — would yield a windfall sufficient to build a hospital. A casino at Rosecroft, Penn National claims, would produce better than $400 million annually in tax revenues for Maryland, including $40 million for Prince George’s. Thomas V. “Mike” Miller, the state Senate president who has long been gambling’s champion, has seized on such rosy numbers to suggest a casino — and only a casino — would get the hospital built. That argument, based on projections that Penn National has every reason to inflate, wouldn’t gain much traction in flush times, when lawmakers seem somehow more able to remember the social ills that come in gambling’s wake. In lean times, it gets a better hearing, judging from the current waffling from state and county politicians, including some who have opposed gambling in the past. County Executive Rushern Baker (D) and Prince George’s lawmakers should remember the unmet promises of the past. Greed, not health care, impels the gaming industry, which for years has pumped hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions into the accounts of pliant state legislators. There is nothing new about hitching a casino to the aging, failing track at Rosecroft — the idea’s been around since the ’90s. Officials resisted it for good reasons, knowing that it would exact a heavy price, particularly on poor people who live nearby. Now, given Prince George’s determination to overcome a reputation for tawdriness and corruption, there is even more reason to refuse to brand the county as the Washington area’s gambling mecca. ****

Why it makes sense to vote for Maryland’s Question 7

THE MASSIVELY expensive TV advertising brawl over Maryland’s ballot Question 7 — whether to add a sixth casino, in Prince George’s County, to the five already authorized in the state, and to supplement the existing slot machines at all of them with table games such as blackjack and roulette — has been framed as a slugfest between competing casino companies (which it is) and a fight over education funding (which it isn’t). The real question for Marylanders is this: Having already approved five casinos in a 2008 referendum, why not agree to a modest expansion that would generate tens of millions more in annual tax revenue for the state, keep gambling proceeds from leaching into neighboring states such as West Virginia and create several thousand new jobs in the bargain? Common sense now argues in favor of a vote **for** the proposed expansion. Since Maryland embarked on slots-only casinos four years ago, three of its four neighbors — Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia — have upped the ante by allowing table games at their casinos. At the biggest neighboring venue, the gargantuan Hollywood casino in Charles Town, W.Va., at least a third of the customers come from Maryland. Whether or not gambling appeals to you, that’s the economic and competitive reality. It also explains why Hollywood’s owner, Penn National Gaming, has deluged the airwaves in Maryland with almost $25 million in TV ads opposing the referendum. Penn doesn’t want the competition, or the substantial loss of profits, from an expansion of gambling in Maryland. We long opposed gambling in Maryland. That position was rendered moot by the 2008 referendum, when 59 percent of state voters approved the five casinos. The biggest of them, Maryland Live!, opened this spring near BWI Marshall Airport; it is on track to pay tens of millions of dollars in state taxes this year. Another major casino, to be operated by Caesars Entertainment, is scheduled to open in downtown Baltimore in 2014. The arguments against expanding gambling aren’t illegitimate, but they’re unconvincing given how the debate and the reality have evolved. It’s true that slot machines amount to a regressive tax, hurting poor people who can ill afford to play and lose. But table games — the main new element at stake in the referendum — attract more high-rollers than lunch-bucket gamblers. MGM Resorts International, the company with the inside track to build the casino in Prince George’s, says table-game minimums there would run from $25 to $100 a hand. Most low-rollers would be priced out. It’s true that higher tax revenue from gambling, although earmarked for education, would not necessarily increase overall state education funding. Money in the state budget is fungible, and lawmakers would be free to redirect other funds away from schools to competing priorities. However, gambling is already yielding millions in tax revenue, and it would produce more if voters approve the expansion. By the end of this decade, if the referendum is successful, the state estimates that the expansion would add $199 million annually to a budget of around $18 billion. Of that contribution, tens of millions would come from the casino in Prince George’s. Even if those projections are overstated, as some studies have argued, the contribution to Maryland’s budget would be critical in a state chronically struggling to balance its budget. The addition of a casino in Prince George’s, probably at National Harbor, the glittery new development on the Potomac River, would also provide tax revenue to the county. Revenue there has long been constrained by a voter-approved property tax cap that politicians have dared not challenge despite tight budgets for local schools and other key programs. County officials think an MGM casino and resort at National Harbor would favorably rebrand Prince George’s. We’re not convinced of that; it may take more to overcome the county’s recent history of corruption. But there’s no question that Prince George’s needs the cash that a casino would generate, including to help finance a new county hospital. On its own, gambling is not an adequate economic development strategy for the state. But in addition to construction jobs, the expansion would add employment — an estimated 4,000 permanent positions at the Prince George’s casino, which would open in 2016. There also would be hundreds more at the state’s other venues. MGM, which plans to invest $800 million in Prince George’s, would build a hotel, restaurants and high-end retail stores to augment its casino. Some opponents have argued that expanding gambling is a bad deal for Maryland since it would lower tax rates — currently the highest in the country — for existing casino operators, increasing their take relative to the state’s. But the owners’ tax rates would be lowered to compensate them for the unanticipated addition of a new competitor: the Prince George’s casino. That’s only fair in a highly regulated marketplace. In the end, casinos are entertainment companies; they’re not wildly dissimilar from other kinds of businesses. If the state regulates the gaming industry adequately, ensuring it does not become a conduit for corruption, it’s hard to understand why it should be taxed much more heavily than other businesses. Granted, gambling, like alcohol use, imposes social costs. Maryland law recognizes that by allotting $1.7 million in the current year, taken directly from slot-machine proceeds, to education, services and treatment focused on gambling addiction. That amount would more than double if voters authorize table games and a sixth casino. Gambling is big business. Over the past decade, it has expanded to 22 states from 15, excluding facilities operated by Native Americans on reservations. There are now nearly 500 casinos around the country. Some 56 million Americans, about a sixth of the nation’s population, have spent money at an MGM property, including casinos, hotels, stores and restaurants. So given the budgetary benefits, why should Maryland opt out? By expanding gambling, the state would simply keep pace with a broad national trend while providing adequate and efficient regulation. A “for” vote on Question 7 does just that. **Read more on this debate** The Post’s View: Gambling’s spreading tentacles in Maryland Heather Mizeur: More gambling isn’t the answer for Maryland’s economy The Post’s View: Betting on more gambling revenue,less gambling politics The Post’s View: Prince George’s gambles that a casino will pay off

Maryland casinos generate $76 million in revenue in July

Maryland casinos generated $76 million in revenue in July, an increase of 9.7 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency said Tuesday. Maryland Live! in Hanover, Md., the third largest commercial casino in the nation, led the state’s four casinos with revenues of $58.2 million. But the biggest success story for the month may be Rocky Gap Casino Resort, which posted $4.2 million in revenue for July, a jump of 19.7 percent compared to July 2013. Hollywood Perryville had the toughest month, reporting $7.5 million in revenue for July, down .1 percent compared to July 2013. Casino at Ocean Downs reported $6 million in revenue, an increase of 4.6 percent compared to July 2013. As of June, Maryland Live! had 81 percent market share, according to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Center for Gaming Research. The Arundel Mills casino will try to hold on to as much of that as possible that after Horseshoe Baltimore, a.k.a., “The Legend,” opens  Aug. 26. The two-story casino is expected to be somewhat smaller than Maryland Live! with 100 table games and 2500 slots. Maryland Live, by contrast, operates 4,222 slot machines and 189 table games.

Largo man nicknamed ‘Mr. Blessed’ claims $1 million lottery prize from big January drawing

Feeling lucky? Maryland lottery officials said they still have three fairly large unclaimed lottery winnings from the record-setting Powerball drawing of $1.6 billion in January. The tickets were sold for the Jan. 13 drawing and winners have 182 days from the day of the drawing to come — in person — to claim their prizes, according to lottery officials in Baltimore. Scores of would-be winners played for the biggest Powerball jackpot in the game’s history, and there were three winning tickets sold in California, Florida and Tennessee. But only the Tennessee winner has come forward so far. In Maryland, the unclaimed Jan. 13 Powerball tickets include a $1 million ticket sold at a 7-Eleven on Annapolis Road in Bladensburg and two $50,000 tickets. One was sold at Sligo Beer & Wine in Silver Spring and another at Charlie Brown’s Tavern in Baltimore County. This week, a Largo man who won $1 million in the historic Jan. 13 Powerball drawing came to lottery headquarters in Baltimore to claim his prize — albeit with his face covered. The state is one of six where winners can remain anonymous. Using only the name “Mr. Blessed,” the 40-year-old Largo man, who has three children, told lottery officials that he bought $20 worth of tickets for the Jan. 13 drawing at a BP gas station in Capitol Heights. The day after the big drawing, he said he went to get coffee at a 7-Eleven store and watched the news. He heard nothing about a winning ticket being sold in Prince George’s County. But later he said he checked his tickets and realized he had won something. “I just couldn’t believe it,” he told lottery officials. “It was an out-of-body experience.” Still, he kept his winnings quiet, telling only immediate family members. He said he waited to claim his price and kept his winning ticket in a safe deposit box. And he followed advice his mother gave him — hire an attorney first. In his winner’s photo, he is shown holding an oversized check with his face covered and just a reddish-colored tie and dark-colored shirt showing. Mr. Blessed said he played the same numbers as he had a week earlier. “I feel truly blessed,” he said. “That’s what you call destiny.” Mr. Blessed told officials that he plans to start college funds for his three kids, set aside some for his retirement and invest some in his home maintenance company. The BP gas station will get $2,500 for selling a winning ticket. Powerball, which started in the 1990s, is played in 44 states, the District, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The winning numbers from the Jan. 13 Powerball drawing were 4-8-19-27-34 with a Powerball number 10. So before you chuck those “losers,” check them one more time. You might have even won your money back.

Prince George’s gambles that a casino will pay off

MARYLANDERS VOTED resoundingly in 2008 to permit slot-machine gambling in their state. This fall they are likely to approve an expansion that would add a sixth casino to the five authorized and allow table games such as roulette at all of them. State officials make the case that the expansion will yield tens of millions of dollars in new revenue — a projection resting on seat-of-the-pants guesses and rosy assumptions. They are reckoning, without much evidence, that a small state can sustain one of the densest arrays of gambling venues in the nation — despite stiff competition just beyond its borders. None of this is very persuasive. Gambling, which is sensitive to economic gyrations, is a flimsy foundation on which to build a state’s economic development program. As in other states, gambling’s promise of gushers of new money for Maryland’s coffers has almost certainly been oversold. The best argument for expansion, therefore, comes not from state politicians in Annapolis but from local officials in Prince George’s County, where the sixth casino, an enormous one, would be located. While a glitzy mega-casino strikes us as a poor branding strategy, particularly for a jurisdiction whose image has been badly stained by corruption, it may have a local economic upside. Officials in Prince George’s, led by County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, argue that the county has for years been starved of revenue by one of the nation’s tightest voter-imposed ceilings on property taxes. The tax cap, known by the acronym TRIM (Tax Reform Initiative by Marylanders), has been in place since 1978 and was reaffirmed by county voters in 1996. While county budgeters have lived within its strictures, it has severely limited initiatives. While the state’s take from an expansion of gambling is a matter of some conjecture, Prince George’s, by hosting a casino, would be more assured of the shot in the arm that new revenue provides. That would help the county, a perpetual beggar, to pay its bills and fund new ideas. Just as promisingly, it would advance the prospects of a desperately needed new regional hospital in Prince George’s, whose financing, in the formulation of State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), could be assured only by new gambling revenue. In our view, Mr. Miller’s use of the hospital to help secure support for an expansion of gambling smacks of extortion. But now that the expansion seems likely, let him make good on the deal. At best, gambling is a mixed bag for Maryland — with a daunting downside in social costs. It has distorted state politics for years. Nonetheless, barring some sudden reversal in the electorate’s mood, its expansion seems all but assured. If it pays dividends for Prince George’s, that at least would be a silver lining in the cloud the issue has cast over the state. **More on this debate:** The Post’s View: In Maryland, gambling giants betting on TV ads to sway voters The Post’s View: Maryland gambling, wagging the dog Richard L. Lobb (letter): A gambling mess Maryland could have avoided The Post’s View: Gambling’s spreading tentacles in Maryland

Hollywood Casino Perryville in Maryland stakes its future on familiarity

When Hollywood Casino Perryville opened its doors four years ago, local and state officials in Maryland were practically giddy. The casino was the first to open after Free State voters legalized slot machines in 2008, enticed by the prospect of millions of dollars in gambling tax revenue flowing into government coffers. Lawmakers projected the Art Deco- style casino, located in a largely rural area off Interstate 95 nearly an hour’s drive north of Baltimore, would, by fiscal 2013, generate $190 million a year in gross revenue. What happened instead: Maryland quickly became one of the most concentrated gambling markets in the country, and Hollywood Perryville didn’t live up to the original state hype. Its annual revenue has been closer to $86 million — less than half of what the state predicted — as it tries to compete with two gambling goliaths: Maryland Live and Horseshoe Baltimore. Since August, when Horseshoe’s $442 million chandelier-filled gambling palace opened near the Inner Harbor, Hollywood’s revenues have fallen by about 10 percent, compared with the previous year, state figures show. Horseshoe is expected to draw about 5 million visitors a year — five times as many as Hollywood Perryville. And yet, at a time when gambling has become more about convenience than cachet, prospects for the Cecil County casino are not as gloomy as those figures suggest. Especially when Hollywood is compared with casinos in Delaware, where the legislature has passed two bailouts, or those in Atlantic City, where four casinos have closed this year and thousands of workers have been laid off. The Perryville casino still turns a healthy profit. And it has a survival plan that does not involve taking on Horseshoe or Maryland Live, the state’s largest casino and its main engine for gambling revenue growth. Perryville, which is about the size of a big box store, will never be the biggest or the glitziest casino, so it is staking its future on a different claim: Being the homiest. “It is an entirely different style of business. It is almost a neighborhood bar of a casino,” general manager Matthew Heiskell said. “Everybody knows everybody.” Heiskell said his casino’s bread and butter are gamblers from Cecil and Harford counties and southern Delaware. Under that locals-first strategy, visitors to Hollywood Perryville are less likely to see ex-Poison frontman Bret Michaels, who appeared at Maryland Live in July, or to spot celebrity chef Guy Fieri, who opened a restaurant inside Horseshoe Baltimore. Instead, they are more likely to catch a local cover band called the Vigilantes or take part in trivia night at the Celebrity Bar & Grill. And that is how many of its customers like it, including more than a few who don’t live nearby. Eileen Cook, who lives in Essex, in eastern Baltimore County, has been to Horseshoe, and she prefers Hollywood Perryville, where, she says, “everybody is friendly.” As she played slots on a recent weekday afternoon, the 64-year-old retired deputy sheriff said she found the bigger casino too crowded and noisy. “The bands are so loud I can’t hear myself,” she said. “I like excitement, but not that much.” At the other end of the casino, a 63-year-old auto body repairman from East Baltimore kept his eyes fixed on his slot machine as he explained how he ended up in Perryville that day during his lunch break. Horseshoe “is too wide open,” he said. “This place is like — cozy.” When Horseshoe opened, all eyes were on Maryland Live to see how much of a hit it would take from its new rival. The Arundel Mills casino has seen its revenue fall some. But that decline is nothing compared to what Hollywood Perryville — and by extension the town of Perryville — has been through over the past four years. At first, monthly revenue generated by Perryville’s 1,500 slots soared over $10 million, and it stayed close to that until Maryland Live opened in mid-2012. At one point, Perryville’s revenue dropped by nearly half, compared with the previous year. Then-owner Penn National Gaming asked the state to take away as many as 500 slot machines to save money and to banish unsightly rows of unattended machines. The casino now has 1,158 slots. Last year, Perryville’s revenue surged once again, with the introduction of 20 table games. The casino’s then-general manager, Steve Lambert, began telling reporters that the casino had “turned a corner.” But its monopoly on table games was short lived. The following month, Maryland Live introduced 122 table games, and Perryville’s table game revenue began to slide. The casino’s changing fortunes have been a roller coaster ride for the roughly 4,300 denizens of Perryville, an old railroad town that served as an important Union outpost during the Civil War. By law, 5.5 percent of the casino’s slot machine revenue goes to the town and Cecil County. The town’s leaders had hoped to use the proceeds — which in fiscal 2013 accounted for about a third of its budget — to build a new town hall and replace the double-wide trailer that houses its police department with a new building. Those projects may take longer to finish, partly because the casino’s contribution has been less reliable than anticipated. Despite the turbulence, however, Perryville is still glad to have the money, town administrator Denise Breder said, and the jobs. The casino employs 345 people. The slot machine revenue has helped make up for cuts in state funding; finance repairs to one of its chief landmarks, Rodgers Tavern, where George Washington once slept; complete much-needed shoreline restoration at a community park; and hire two police officers. Since Horseshoe’s opening, revenue at Perryville has dropped by 10 to 11 percent for the past two months, a year-to-year comparison of state data shows. Heiskell takes comfort in the fact that the drop has been smaller than expected. A study commissioned by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency had projected that, starting next year, Perryville would likely lose 13 percent of its slots revenue and 18 percent of its table games revenue. Revenue from table games, in particular, has held steady. One reason could be dealers such as Lura Price, who has worked at the casino for three years. Her 20-year-old son works in the kitchen. Price said she sees many of the same faces each week at her table, and many of them know her name without having to glance at her name tag. The Perryville casino is even friendly to card counters. While bigger casinos routinely eject them, Heiskell said individual gamblers who use their intellect to win are welcome. (Card counting teams are another story — those aren’t so welcome, he said.) Anthony Lucas, an expert in casino management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that being accommodating is probably the biggest competitive advantage a smaller casino such as Perryville has. “You’ve got to be sure you know who you are,” Lucas said.

Winning $1 million lottery ticket sold, no claimant yet

And the winner is..... (drumroll, please). No one. Yet. Maryland lottery officials said the winner has not stepped forward to claim a $1 million ticket that was sold in the Waldorf area. The winningMega Millions ticket for Tuesday’s drawing was sold at the Washington Mart at 2145 Crain Highway. The five numbers on it are 16-29-46-48-55. The store will receive a $2,500 bonus for selling the ticket. And the lucky winner has 182 days to claim the prize at the lottery’s headquarters in Baltimore. Maryland is one of six states that does not require the winner to disclose his or her name. Even though Maryland allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, about 25 percent allow officials to identify them to the public. Lottery officials often advise winners: Find your ticket, sign it, put it in a safe place, and seek legal and financial advice. Then come claim the prize. Last year, a man who won a $189 million Mega Millions jackpot after buying a ticket at an Anne Arundel convenience store claimed his ticket with his family at lottery headquarters in Maryland. They hid their faces behind signs, which read: “We are so . . . blessed, excited, fortunate, happy!!” The man hid his winning ticket in an unplugged lamp for more than a week before claiming his prize. He said he dreamed that his relatives told him the winning numbers the night before he bought a ticket at a Dash In convenience store in Severn. The Mega Millions game is played in 43 states, the District and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Maryland casinos pumped $1.4 billion into the state’s economy, industry study says

Maryland’s fast-growing casino industry injected $1.4 billion into the state economy and supported nearly 8,000 jobs in 2013, according to an industry-funded study released Monday. The casino industry also generated $359 million in income and pumped $543 million in tax revenue into state coffers, concluded researchers from Oxford Economics, a forecasting firm based in Oxford, England. The analysis, paid for by the American Gaming Association, the leading trade group representing casino operators and manufacturers, did not include the $442 million Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, which opened in August 2014 and employs about 3,000 people. A sixth casino, the $925 million MGM National Harbor, is being built just outside Washington and is scheduled to open in 2016. Maryland has become one of the most concentrated markets in the country and one of the bright spots in the mid-Atlantic casino market. It has profited at the expense of older gambling destinations that were once popular with Free State gamblers, including West Virginia, Delaware and Atlantic City, where four casinos will have closed by year’s end. Four casinos were open in the state in fiscal 2013: Hollywood Casino Perryville, Casino at Ocean Downs, Rocky Gap Casino Resort and Maryland Live, the state’s largest and most successful. They directly employed nearly 4,000 people, and indirectly supported thousands more, the study found. The Oxford researchers went a step further and said that without the commercial casino industry, the unemployment rate in Maryland would rise from 6.3 percent to 7 percent. Nearly half the slot machine revenue in Maryland goes to the state education trust fund, but an analysis by the Capital News Servicefound that in fiscal 2014, more money went to the casino operators than to the trust fund, and that the trust fund dollars have been used to free up money in the general fund for other uses. Based on its tax revenue estimates, the Oxford report said the average household would pay an additional $252 in taxes each year if not for the casinos. About $1.5 million is diverted from gaming revenue to pay for programs to address problem and pathological gambling. However, the Oxford report does not include any estimates on the fiscal impact of problem gambling and gambling addiction. A 2011 state-backed study estimated that about 3.4 percent of Marylanders were at risk for a gambling addiction. “This study shows that gaming is driving big results in Maryland,” Geoff Freeman, president and chief executive of the American Gaming Association, said in a statement. “However, given increased competition and changing consumer demands, our future success depends on strong partnerships with policymakers that allow us to innovate, reinvest and create more jobs.” State lawmakers may take comfort in the AGA-funded report’s findings since revenue figures have so far fallen short of initial projections. In 2008, the year Maryland voters approved slot machines in a referendum, state lawmakers projected that casino revenue would top $1.36 billion in fiscal 2013. That estimate assumed that five casinos would be operating by then and the state would have 15,000 slot machines. Instead, there were four casinos with a total of about 9,000 slot machines and more than 350 table games that together generated $608 million in revenue. The discrepancy may have more to do with the state’s expectations. Since it opened in August, Horseshoehas been raking in about $23 million a month, compared with the $27 million projected by a state-backed study done last year. That study suggested that Horseshoe would primarily cannibalize business from Maryland Live near the Arundel Mills mall. But the suburban casino has performed better than anticipated. Its revenue held steady in November, compared with a year earlier. “We’re pleased with the results we’re seeing,” general manager Rob Norton said. “The state had their expectations. We had ours. They didn’t necessarily line up. It seems to have played out the way we believed. There are two distinct markets, one for Baltimore City and one for us.”

Horseshoe Casino Baltimore is not raking in as much cash as state officials expected

Horseshoe Casino Baltimore has not pulled in as much cash as expected since it opened in August, revenue figures released Friday by state officials show. The glittering two-story gambling hall near the Inner Harbor fell short of projected monthly revenue in November, as it did the prior month, both times by about 15 percent. Its chief rival, Maryland Live at Arundel Mills, defied dire expectations, but in the opposite direction. Instead of reporting big losses, the state’s largest casino brought in about the same revenue as it did the previous year. It remains the dominant player in Maryland’s highly concentrated casino market. Maryland’s five casinos generated $90.2 million in November, a 34 percent increase compared with the same period last year, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency said. Excluding Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, revenue was flat, down by less than 1 percent. The $442 million Horseshoe casino raked in $23.4 million in November. A state-backed study released last year estimated the casino by M&T Stadium would generate about $27 million a month in its first year of operation. Maryland Live generated $54 million, an increase of 0.77 percent compared with November 2013. Hollywood Casino Perryville generated $6.2 million in November, down 6.9 percent from a year earlier. The Casino at Ocean Downs reported $3.4 million in revenue for November, down 3.8 percent from November 2013. Rocky Gap Casino Resort took in $3.5 million in November, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier.

Maryland’s commercial bingo halls are big loser in casino gambling expansion

Wayson’s Bingo was always filled with players, buzz and cigarette smoke when Miss Doris first started showing up in the 1980s. Back then, if you arrived at the 750-seat hall in southern Anne Arundel County even a little late, you probably weren’t getting into the game. Enter the cultural time warp that is Wayson’s today, and you’ll still find Miss Doris in her regular seat by the pillar, with her walker parked nearby and 27 ink-dotted cards spread across the table. “As long as they keep picking me up and playing the bingo,” said Doris Noris, 83, “I’ll keep coming.” But the excitement and crowds at the half-century-old hall about 20 miles from downtown Washington have evaporated as bingo loses players to death and competition — particularly Maryland’s slots parlors. And the most crushing blow could be yet to come, with a new casino likely to land in 2016 at National Harbor, about 30 minutes from Wayson’s, in the geographic heart of the old joint’s aging clientele. “We’d like to think we can survive,” said D. Boone Wayson, whose father opened the bingo hall in 1959, in a building that had been used as a bowling alley and a ballroom. “We’d like to believe there are enough bingo customers who just want bingo. But bingo is a declining business.” Commercial bingo once did a booming business in Anne Arundel County, where thousands of players from all over the area packed into a half-dozen halls on any given night to gamble and gab. Now, there are just three bingo venues in the county: Delta Bingo in Laurel, Bingo World just outside Baltimore and Wayson’s, where billionaire casino magnate Steve Wynn got his start as a gambling operator in the 1960s. In 2011, the three halls generated $8.68 million in tax revenue, according to the Maryland Comptroller’s Office. But the state’s high-tech slots casinos are pulling away customers and cash: Since the $500 million Maryland Live casino opened in June at Arundel Mills, year-over-year bingo business in Anne Arundel is down by about 25 percent, the comptroller’s office estimates. And more competition is coming for the bingos, which had already lost business to lottery games, casinos in nearby states and Internet gaming. Caesars Entertainment is building a new casino in Baltimore. And this month, Maryland voters approved a dramatic expansion of gambling that will allow a casino to be built near Wayson’s, in Prince George’s County. The passage of Question 7 also means table games and live dealers at Maryland’s casinos. But it’s the slots that worry the Wayson family most. “Obviously, more machines and more places for people to play them will have a negative effect on our business,” Boone Wayson said. “You don’t just lose people; you lose the depth of their spend. You might see them three times a month instead of four, and they might spend 20 percent less when we do see them because they’ve gone to Maryland Live.” Bingo, a modified form of an old Italian gambling game, was introduced in America in the 1920s and rose to popularity during the Great Depression, according to David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. As church groups and fraternal organizations began hosting low-stakes bingo games for charity, bingo became known as the most permissible form of gambling in America. Seasonal bingo halls started to open around Southern Maryland’s beach towns decades ago, and by the 1950s, Anne Arundel was licensing them inland, too. It was one of the few areas to allow commercial bingo outside of Nevada and some Native American reservations. After Wayson’s opened along Route 4 in Lothian, it became a popular stop for drivers going to and from the Chesapeake Bay — and a destination for women looking to pass a few hours with several hundred of their closest “Bingo!”-shouting friends. It was as much a social club as a gambling hall. “If they ever closed this place down, 20,000 women would be homeless,” Wayson’s bingo caller Willie Dornicak told The Washington Post for a 1966 story. The business was run by the Waysons and Michael Wynn, a national bingo promoter who had controlling interest in the hall. When he died in 1963, his 21-year-old son took over the operation. Steve Wynn would conquer the gambling world, building the Mirage, Bellagio and a namesake Las Vegas resort. But he was a bingo guy first, and several decades ago, Wynn described Wayson’s as “by far the largest bingo operation on Earth,” according to biographer John L. Smith. Bingo’s appeal faded as more states legalized lotteries and authorized commercial or tribal Indian casinos. Even charitable bingo has declined in popularity, said Schwartz, the gaming historian; many fraternal organizations now host charitable poker tournaments instead. “There are some people who still like bingo,” Schwartz said. “Especially older people.” That’s another problem for the business: Bingo’s core demographic is dying off. Minda Niestrath, who gets paid to shuttle bingo players to Wayson’s from Waldorf, Clinton and Suitland in a 15-capacity van four nights each week, says she has lost at least a half-dozen of her players to the big bingo hall in the sky. And there are fewer and fewer younger players picking up bingo, Boone Wayson said. “How do we repopulate?” Wayson asked. “The lifestyle, the game, is more for older people. Younger people who are used to the Internet like the speed and ever-changing nature of [slot] machines.” Wayson’s and the other halls now have a limited number of electronic bingo machines, which look and play almost exactly like electronic slot machines. But a few dozen machines at Wayson’s can’t compete with 4,750 slots at Maryland Live — to say nothing of the difference in entertainment and dining options. Maryland Live has a concert venue and multiple restaurants. Wayson’s has a row of vending machines selling Hot Pockets, Fritos, sodas and 25-cent cups of coffee. On the first night of bingo after Maryland voters approved the gaming-expansion referendum, Tim Wayson surveyed the hall, which was more than half-empty. “I’ve been here my whole life; I grew up in here,” he said. He’s 24, not nearly old enough to remember when bingo did boffo business. But he knows things are getting worse — and the arrival of a new MGM casino at National Harbor could be a killer. “I don’t want to be too negative, because this is our business,” he said. “But it definitely could hurt bingo a lot. It’s a scary thing. I was hoping it wouldn’t get passed. Nothing good can come out of it for us.” Nearby, Miss Doris was dabbing away at her bingo cards. Her hand was covered with bright pink ink. To her, the chatter about a new casino was just noise. “I won’t go,” she said. She started playing at Wayson’s years before Tim Wayson was born, when chartered buses shuttled players to the busy hall from all over the area. “Oh my, it was always so, so packed,” said Miss Doris, who lives in the District near the Convention Center. “I made a lot of friends in here.” The numbers-caller announced G-54. “BINGO!” a woman sitting nearby shouted. Miss Doris groaned. It had been a long time since she’d won, and the last $1,000 payout of the night was now in the books. “Well,” she shrugged as she stuffed her snacks, medication, eyeglasses and hand lotion into a bag, “I’ll be back tomorrow.” Miss Doris still comes almost every night they run bingo at Wayson’s — Thursday through Sunday — and she’s always in the same place. Squatting is one of the few traditions that has survived. “We own this table,” said Angie Wooden, who always sits next to Miss Doris. Wooden has been coming to Wayson’s since she was 17. She’s 54 now and is the assistant to the director of a labor union in Washington. Stressful job, she said. “Bingo relaxes me.” She plays at Wayson’s almost every night — “as long as I have money.” But come 2016, when the new casino in Prince George’s is scheduled to open, she probably won’t be back much. “Oh,” she said, “I’ll be at the Harbor.”

Hot roll continues for Md. casino industry

Boom goes the gambling business. After posting record-setting statewide revenues in March, Maryland’s burgeoning casino industry had another massive month in April: The state’s four casinos combined for more than $71.46 million, according to data released Monday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. It was the second- best month on record, edging the $71.01 million total from August.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Leading the way, as always, was Maryland Live, which collected nearly $56.5 million from slots and tables. The airplane-terminal-sized casino at Arundel Mills hauled in more than $36.2 million from its 4,322 slot machines in April along with $20.2 million from table games — including $2.1 million from the 52-table poker room. It was Maryland Live’s 12th consecutive month with pretax gambling revenues of $50 million or more — a streak that began last May, the first full month of operations for the table-games division. Total slot revenue at the fell by about 5 percent compared to April 2013; but the 177 tables made up for the difference and then some. Excluding Rocky Gap Casino, the lakefront resort that opened in Western Maryland last May, year-over-year casino revenue in the state was up 15 percent, or $8.8 million, over last April, mostly because of Maryland Live, which typically accounts for three-quarters or more of the state’s gambling revenue. April revenues at both the Casino at Ocean Downs ($3.62 million) and Hollywood Casino Perryville ($7.69 million) were down by nearly 9 percent from the same period in 2013. Rocky Gap generated $3.63 million. Of the statewide haul — which was exactly $71,457,588.66, according to regulators — about half was collected in taxes, including more than $28 million for the Education Trust Fund. The casinos have sent nearly $270 million to the education fund during the current fiscal year. In March, which included five high-volume weekends, Maryland’s casinos shattered the statewide record with nearly $78 million in gross gambling revenue.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday Maryland’s gambling-revenue landscape will expand and shift in August or September, when the Horseshoe Casino opens in downtown Baltimore — and again in 2016, when MGM National Harbor opens in Prince George’s County.

In Maryland, betting on TV ads to sway voters

APITCHED TV AD war is underway in Maryland, pitting one out-of-state gaming- industry behemoth against another. At last count, the two firms had spent $15 million in the fight to influence voters, who will cast ballots in November on an expansion of gambling in Maryland that would authorize a sixth casino and add table games such as poker at all venues. The ads trade fire over the alleged benefits, or pitfalls, to Maryland taxpayers in the expansion measure. For the most part, they obscure the fact that this is really a fight over the prospect of immense profits for one gaming company and the risk of considerable losses for another. Already casino interests have spent twice the amount they shelled out in all of 2008 to get slot-machine gambling approved in Maryland in the first place. In some media markets, particularly Baltimore’s, the barrage of television ads is so intense that viewers would be excused for forgetting that the fall ballot will also include a presidential election. The main combatants — though the ads don’t name them — are Las Vegas-based MGM Resorts International and Pennsylvania-based Penn National Gaming. If voters approve the expansion, MGM has the inside track to build what could be an $800 million casino at National Harbor in Prince George’s County; unsurprisingly, it is behind the pro-expansion ads. Penn National is worried that the new casino would sap profits at its own marquee property 90 minutes away, Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, W.Va.; it has paid for the ads against expansion. MGM frames the expansion as a windfall that would yield thousands of jobs and “hundreds of millions” of dollars in tax revenue for Maryland schools while cutting “subsidies” for casinos. The subsidy cut is nonsense — in fact, Maryland is cutting taxes, not subsidies, for most casinos. But a yes vote on Question 7 would indeed produce a few thousand jobs — to build and operate the new venue — as well as cash for the state. How much cash, and whether it would really help schools, is unclear. The state, through its Department of Legislative Services, projects additional revenue of about $100 million a year from the new casino and the introduction of table games such as poker. But that amount would not materialize until 2018. And it wouldn’t necessarily mean additional funding for schools; if they choose, lawmakers could shift funds to other agencies. Penn National, which has spent $10 million to beat the expansion so far, casts doubt in its ads on the state’s jobs and revenue numbers. It also points out that the state is cutting taxes for most casinos — in part to compensate them for stiffer competition from a sixth casino — even as it raises taxes for residents earning more than $100,000 a year. But Penn, aggrieved at not having the inside track to build a new casino in Prince George’s, is plainly most concerned with its own bottom line. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this summer, Penn acknowledged that it could be “adversely affected” by a casino at National Harbor. Taxpayers should bear that in mind when they see ads professing great concern for their welfare. **Read more on this topic** The Post’s View: Rolling the dice on gambling in Maryland Heather Mizeur: More gambling isn’t the answer for Maryland’s economy The Post’s View: High stakes in Maryland

Bowie couple’s good fortune includes $1 million in huge Powerball drawing

A Bowie couple accustomed to playing the lottery four times each week struck it big — with a million-dollar win in the $564.1 million Powerball drawing last week. The couple bought one of two tickets in Maryland that earned a $1 million prize in last Wednesday’s drawing by matching five numbers. No one in the state won the larger jackpot, for picking not only the five regular numbers but also the Powerball number. There were three of those big winners, in Texas, North Carolina and Puerto Rico. The Maryland Lottery wouldn’t share the names of the Prince George’s County couple who won the prize, but the lottery told their story in a press release. The parents of four, who have been married for 39 years, enter Mega Millions and Powerball every week, the press release said. For the big jackpot, the third largest in Powerball history, the woman knew that her husband had already bought “a few” tickets, but she decided to pick up two more when she was shopping at Giant in Bowie. The day after the drawing, one of their daughters heard that Giant had sold a $1 million ticket. The other $1 million ticket in Maryland, sold in Garrett County, has not yet been claimed, state lottery spokeswoman Erica Palmisano said. The daughter called her mother, who said, “there was no way it was us,” according to the press release. But it was. Hours later, they went to the state lottery’s headquarters to claim their prize. In the press release, they said that the woman had retired and the man was planning to do so later this year. “We weren’t sure how everything would work out once we both stopped working,” she said. “This win has answered a lot of questions for us.” They also said they planned to donate to charity. “We have a very happy life. Being able to spread our good fortune around will be wonderful.”

Casinos bet on growth in table games, removing slot machines to make room

Slot machines, long the reliable soldier of gambling, are losing ground in Maryland’s casinos as younger gamblers seek out table games and older players can’t keep the slot stools filled. Over the past 15 months, Maryland’s three largest casinos — Maryland Live, Horseshoe Casino Baltimore and Hollywood Casino Perryville — have kicked 1,350 slot machines to the curb. That’s a 16 percent cut to their slots to make room for more table games, restaurant space, entertainment and other amenities, all of which are increasing in value to casinos as interest in slots slides, particularly among millennials. Traditionally a cash cow for the industry, slots are losing some of their appeal in lots of places around the country. It’s a trend that has casino executives concerned and busy dreaming up new ways to bolster slot games and make them more attractive. The dominance of slots has waned even in the gambling stronghold of Nevada, where the number of machines has dropped from a high of 217,000 in 2001 to 175,000 last year. And slot earnings have fallen there as well: Nevada casinos experienced a 20 percent reduction in slot revenue between 2007 and 2014, according to the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The decline in the number of machines in Maryland has potential revenue implications for the state. Maryland taxes slot machine earnings at casinos at rates between 57 to 61 percent, with the exception of Rocky Gap Casino, where slots are taxed at 50 percent. By contrast, table games in the state are taxed at a 20 percent rate. In 2014, Maryland casinos generated $833 million in gross gaming revenue. Although he acknowledges that some of his colleagues in the Maryland legislature believe that the casinos are switching from slots to table games to avoid the higher tax, Del. Eric G. Luedtke ( D-Montgomery) says he is not troubled by the shift. “I think it’s an expected part of the business,” said Luedtke, the House chairman of the Joint Committee on Gaming Oversight. “Casinos are right-sizing and responding to consumer demand, and I think they’re all getting ready for the opening of MGM next year.” Casino behemoth MGM is scheduled to open its $1.2 billion MGM National Harbor Casino, overlooking the Potomac River in Prince George’s County, in the latter half of 2016. Plans call for it to have 3,600 slot machines and 140 table games. “Once MGM opens, we should do a study of the tax rates and see if they are at the right levels,” Luedtke said. Gamblers who prefer slots to table games needn’t panic yet. Casinos aren’t about to abandon slots. They still make up the vast bulk of gambling revenue and are a mainstay of the $240 billion industry. But the drop-off has casino executives re-imagining what the slot experience could be for gamblers. “It’s no different than any other business that sees changes within overarching trends,” says Alex Dixon, vice president and assistant general manager at Horseshoe Baltimore. “You look to collectively get together to see how you can stem the tide. It’s not something that’s going to be fixed overnight.” Evidence of one of the ways that casinos are trying to stem that tide could be found on the desk of Nevada’s governor, Brian Sandoval (R), who last week signed a bill that allows for the development of interactive slot machines. These are games that would presumably be more appealing to millennials who don’t seem interested in the passive — and mostly solitary — experience of playing traditional slot machines. “This bill allows gaming manufacturers to use cutting-edge technology to meet the challenges prompted by a younger, more technologically engaged visitor demographic,” Sandoval told the Las Vegas Review Journal. Casinos and machine manufacturers are now free to pursue slot games that would mirror video games and introduce some level of skill rather than pure chance into the slot experience. Five years ago, Eric Meyerhofer helped found Gamblit Gaming, a Glendale, Calif., company that develops video and mobile games for gambling. “There was a recognition in the casino gaming industry that the traditional products are doing a great job attracting and entertaining people from their late 40s up into their 60s or 70s, but they have very little penetration into the 45-and-under group,” Meyerhofer said. “And that doesn’t bode well for a casino industry without coming up with ways to adapt.” Meyerhofer, Gamblit’s chief executive, says casino operators are embracing the idea of “gaming zones” inside casinos and are making capital investments in their properties that will make room for engaging and socially interactive games that move away from the solitary slot experience. Gamblit produces skill wagering games such as “Police Pooches Vs. Zombie Cats: In Time” (seriously, that’s the name) that Meyerhofer describes as “an ‘Angry Birds’-style game where you’re launching police dogs going after these zombie cats.” The game has a chance element but will also reward skill with monetary payoffs. Players can compete against both the house and other players. Meyerhofer believes that Nevada’s decision to allow skill-based gaming will have a ripple effect. “Everyone is seeing the same issue . . . the [current] products are not interactive,” he said. “They don’t capture your imagination.” As for the introduction of skill-based slots in Maryland, Luedtke says Maryland and Nevada are in different positions. “I don’t think we’re ready to have that conversation in Maryland just yet,” he said. Maryland casinos are trying to drum up interest in slot machines the old-fashioned way: glitz and hype. Slot machines such as Wheel of Fortune have had long-lasting popularity, and machine makers have tried to capture a similar pop-culture appeal by introducing games tied to such hit television shows as “Family Guy,” “CSI,” “Sex and the City” and “Game of Thrones.” Even Ellen DeGeneres, the doyenne of daytime TV, has a slot based on her show. Last week, Maryland Live launched Giant Jackpots, an ongoing slot program that starts with jackpots at $50,000 and is guaranteed to be won by the time it reaches $100,000. Slot machines were mobbed, and customers were even waiting in line for a chance to play. The first winner of Giant Jackpots was Chon Nguyen of Jessup, Md., who was playing the penny slots May 31 and won the jackpot on a 60-cent bet. Her winning haul? $97,797.57. Maybe slots haven’t run out of luck just yet.

Maryland gambling issue has netted $56 million from companies for ad blitz

Dueling out-of-state gambling companies and their allies have poured $56 million into the fight over whether to allow a Las Vegas-style casino in Prince George’s County, fueling an unprecedented advertising blitz in what has become one of the most visible races in the region. The money, which is being shelled out at a rate of $6 million a week, exceeds what the candidates spent in Maryland’s past two gubernatorial races combined. With two weeks to go, the spending has already eclipsed that of all but a handful of other recent ballot measures across the country. And it is unlike anything previously seen in Maryland politics. The fight over Question 7, as it will appear on Maryland’s Nov. 6 ballot, has included celebrity endorsers, including illusionist David Copperfield and “Golden Boy” fighter Oscar De La Hoya, who said in a recent robo-call that the proposed casino would be a “destination resort” that will create “thousands of jobs for hard-working people.” Those claims, funded in large part by the $21 million MGM Resorts has ponied up so far, have been met head-on with a nearly $30 million campaign by Penn National Gaming aimed at convincing voters that the promised jobs and money for education won’t materialize. The ads have targeted an electorate that in 2008 approved Maryland’s slots program in a landslide, 59 percent to 41 percent. But now, among likely voters this year in Maryland, 46 percent favor Question 7 while 48 percent are opposed, according to a new Washington Post poll that also shows widespread doubt that the measure would boost education funding as advertised. In addition to a Prince George’s casino, the expansion plan, backed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), would also allow table games, such as blackjack and roulette, at the state’s five previously authorized slots locations. Maryland voters embraced the slots plan just four years ago in a relatively low-dollar referendum — with a combined $8 million in spending and muted opposition — that set the previous record for a statewide ballot-issue campaign in the Free State. This year’s ads have been so relentless that O’Malley recently pushed back, telling reporters in Annapolis, in unusually colorful language, that the opposition claims were “hogwash, a bunch of West Virginia casino hooey.” He has since appeared in an ad funded by MGM and its allies seeking to rebut the claims. Those ads have touted the money that could be generated for schools by expanded gambling, as well as the promise of thousands of jobs. Proponents, such as O’Malley, have also argued that Penn’s opposition stems from its own business interests: Its properties include Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, W.Va., which stands to take a big hit if another large-scale venue opens in Maryland. MGM has a lot at stake as well. The company, which owns several hotels and casinos on the Las Vegas strip and elsewhere, is angling to build a high-end casino by 2016 at National Harbor, the mini-city on the banks of the Potomac River. MGM executives envision a 400-room hotel, a spa, high-end retail and restaurants, convention space, and possibly venues for concerts and shows. If built, that casino could be the most lucrative on the East Coast, analysts say, drawing gamblers from the District and Virginia as well as visitors to the Washington area from around the globe. “You have very narrow interests who are going to benefit greatly from passage or defeat of this measure,” said Daniel A. Smith, a professor of political science at the University of Florida who is an expert on ballot measures nationally. “I can’t say I’m surprised to see this kind of money in Maryland.” If the same number of Marylanders vote on Nov. 6 as did four years ago, the gambling companies will together have spent more than $20 trying to sway each one of them. Elsewhere, ballot measures involving gambling have emerged as some of the most costly of the past decade as competing interests have duked it out in states including California, Rhode Island and Ohio. Penn has been involved in a few of the bigger battles, where it has sought to both advance and protect its interests. In 2008, the company contributed nearly $38 million to a campaign to defeat a proposed Ohio casino that could have undercut Penn’s business at a nearby property in Indiana. More than $64 million was spent by all parties involved, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The next year, Penn gave $20 million to an effort to allow four new casinos in Ohio, two of which it would own. The total cost of that campaign exceeded $60 million. The Penn-funded ads have sought to make the case that you can’t trust what politicians say about the benefits of gambling, particularly on education funding. In one ad, viewers are told there’s “a giant loophole” in Maryland’s plan: “No new money is required to go to education.” The truth is not quite so simple. Maryland law does require a share of gambling revenue to be spent on education programs, and this year, legislative analysts project that $286 million in slots revenue will go toward that purpose. What the law does allow is for state officials to use gambling revenue to displace other dollars that would have been spent on education funding if the program didn’t exist — something O’Malley and other advocates insist was known from the outset. Regardless of the reality, the ads appear to have dampened enthusiasm for the expansion plan. “I think one has to conclude the ads are making a huge difference,” said Donald F. Norris, chairman of the public policy department at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. “People don’t trust politicians, and they’re being told politicians sold them a bill of goods. I think that resonates.” In The Post’s poll, nearly two-thirds of likely voters say they have heard or seen “a lot” of ads on the issue, and more than half (55 percent) say they are not confident that the expansion plan will produce more money for schools. At the same time, a slim majority of likely voters polled (51 percent) say Maryland’s existing slots program has been a “good thing” for the state. Only about half as many, 28 percent, say they see the program as a “bad thing,” and the remaining 21 percent say they have no opinion or see the effect as mixed. Bill Miller, an aircraft mechanic from St. Mary’s County, is among those who are inclined to vote no this time, even though he said he has no objections to gambling in general. “I’m not sure where all the money is going to go, how much the school system is going to get,” said Miller, 47. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. They bombard you so much.” Jim Murren, chief executive officer of Las Vegas-based MGM, said in a recent interview that “this wouldn’t be such a close race if not for one casino in West Virginia spending tens of millions of dollars on the airwaves confusing the issue and trying to tell people in Maryland how to vote.” Murren said he was not surprised, however, by Penn’s pace of spending. “They’re very adept at political campaigns,” Murren said. “We’re very adept at running luxury resorts.” MGM has a couple of allies in the ad war. A group that includes Caesars Entertainment has given $4.6 million to the same ballot issue committee. Caesars plans to open a casino in Baltimore in 2014 that could benefit from table games. And the Peterson Cos., the developer of National Harbor, has chipped in $1.3 million. Peterson has also given $500,000 to another pro-expansion committee led by Wayne K. Curry, a former Prince George’s county executive. Penn officials have declined repeated requests for interviews in recent weeks. The company also owns Rosecroft Raceway, a horse track in Prince George’s, and a small casino in northeastern Maryland. As written, Maryland’s plan would invite competitive bids for a gambling license in Prince George’s from National Harbor and Rosecroft, but Penn officials have said the deck is stacked against them. Reginald Calloway, a retired chef from Germantown, is among those supportive of Question 7 who underscore what Penn has to lose. Calloway said he heads to Charles Town to play slots a couple of times a year. If a casino opens in Prince George’s, Calloway said he would go there instead. Not surprisingly, gamblers such as Calloway, 63, are among the biggest supporters of Question 7. The Post’s poll finds that six in 10 likely voters who have visited a Maryland casino in the past year support the expansion plan. Jon Cohen, Peyton M. Craighill, Scott Clement and Aaron C. Davis contributed to this report.

MGM National Harbor’s traffic was bad. But wait until it dwindles.

And so here’s betting that, after the buzz has waned in a few years, the $1.4 billion gambling mecca in Prince George’s County will have done for its economy, its schools, its workforce, etc. what gambling has done for Atlantic City and the zillion other places that have chased the gambling dollar in recent years: zilch.  But let’s hope that dire predictions are wrong. After all, Thursday’s opening drew a crowd, even if the casino staff’s ability to manage things seemed a bit shaky. A frostbitten mob threatened to break down the doors to reach the gambling floor, and a fistfight broke out on the casino floor. As traffic backups stretched into Virginia, Maryland State Police were forced to close the Capital Beltway exit ramps at the complex to clear the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. No doubt this was just the irrational exuberance of its opening night. Once things settle down, planners expect the casino to draw an estimated 25,000 visitors a day. Most will be in cars, as the closest Metro stop is about five miles away. To handle the traffic, Maryland officials sunk $10 million into new infrastructure near the casino, including a road, realignments and other touches. But the bigger question is whether any of this will be worth it. William N. Thompson, professor emeritus of public administration at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, has his doubts. Thompson has been studying the economics of gambling for more than three decades from his perch in Sin City. His view of the industry, and the politicians who lust after its revenue, is fairly jaded. But he thinks D.C.’s venture into Las Vegasland is more than questionable. “It’s not going to be that good for your local economy. It’s going to be a drain,” Thompson said. For one thing, he believes a single casino at National Harbor is likely to do little more than siphon off disposable income from nearby residents, thereby having a negligible benefit on the local economy. People in our region also have more and more gambling options closer to home, such as Maryland Live! and the Horseshoe casino in Baltimore. By contrast, Las Vegas’s approximately 200 casinos pack a lot of concentrated firepower that lures about 40 million people from all over the planet, Thompson said. Thompson also doubts that MGM National Harbor will become a destination for tourists to the nation’s capital — and maybe, he said, it shouldn’t be. “The people that go to Washington, D.C., don’t want to go there to gamble,” Thompson said. “They take their kids not to gamble — they take them to see the sights — to see America, to see the statue of Abraham Lincoln. And I think it’s sick to think that we’re going to get money from tourists to Washington, D.C., to gamble. It’s [baloney].” And yet Maryland politicians are not the only ones betting on gambling to revive an area’s fortunes. Casinos seem to pop up like toadstools these days, and almost always with the blessing of local officials. “[T]hey think, ‘Oh, we’ll have a casino and they’ll pay all our taxes,’ ” Thompson said. “Guess what: We have rotten schools in Vegas because everybody says, ‘Oh, we don’t want to pay taxes — let the casinos pay our taxes.’ So it’s an attitude that develops that somebody else is going to pay our way.” This isn’t even the first time Washington’s had a casino, Thompson said. And that one didn’t work out so well. In his book, “Gambling in America: An Encyclopedia of History,  Issues and Society,” Thompson describes how the Palace of Fortune operated at 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in the mid-1800s. President James Buchanan was a regular at the faro table. Members of Congress, Cabinet members and Supreme Court  justices also came around to try their luck. Lobbyists circulated freely among them, and it so happened that the impresario of this house of chance took a keen interest in legislation, too. His name was Edward Pendleton, and he was always glad to extend house credit to political figures who found themselves down on their luck. Thanks to this convenient arrangement, Pendleton sired hundreds of bills during the 26 years the casino was in operation, Thompson said. Not that things have changed all that much. “Las Vegas is probably the biggest city in the world for campaign money,” Thompson said. “They all come here, and they go away with bags full of money, and you don’t know whether it’s reported or not.” While battling the traffic streaming toward the casino on Thursday night, I was thinking about what Thompson had to say. As a giant video screen flashed promos for upcoming shows featuring  Duran Duran, Cher and other stars of yesteryear and security staff waved VIPs into the parking garage, I wondered how the gilded MGM lion and all the other kitsch would look like in five or 10 years. Would the casino still seem like a sliver of Las Vegas? Or a dowdy corner of Atlantic City or Tunica, Miss., where gambling has failed to live up to its initial billing? Well, it’s too late to reconsider now. The MGM National Harbor complex is the first landmark visitors see when they cross the Potomac River on the Beltway from Virginia, and Maryland seems more than eager to build on its reputation for having lots of taxes and lots of slot machines. If Virginia is for lovers, it makes you wonder whether Maryland is for suckers.

High stakes in Maryland

THE MOST ambitious plan to expand casino gambling since it was approved by Maryland voters in 2008 is on life support, a victim of the dysfunctional politics that has long plagued the issue in Annapolis. At the eleventh hour last week, members of the House of Delegates threw a wrench into the works of the proposed expansion, thereby delaying, if not derailing, a proposal to build a sixth casino — a big one in Prince George’s County — and to add table games to the five slots casinos already operating or authorized in the state. The House members’ defection was a consensus-killer for a state panel commissioned byGov. Martin O’Malley (D) to study the feasibility of expanding gambling in Maryland. The idea of expansion is driven by a desire to reap additional revenue and make the state’s casinos more attractive than their competitors in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. When it comes to gambling, no proposal is ever really dead in Maryland, and this one isn’t either. Pushed by the state Senate president, Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), and by an array of other parties who find the revenue irresistible, expansion proposals will be revived sooner or later — though not necessarily in time to be considered in a special legislative session in July or placed before voters on the November ballot, as Mr. O’Malley had hoped. Gambling, particularly slot machine terminals, is a toxic way for a state to raise money, as we have frequently argued. It amounts to a tax on the poor and the middle class, who patronize casinos though they can least afford it. It invites an array of social problems, including gambling addiction. And as the current fight illustrates, it is politically venomous. Nonetheless, Maryland has moved past that debate. The questions now are how much gambling, and how many casinos, to allow. Here, too, there are reasons to proceed slowly. The proposal for a huge gaming venue at National Harbor, on the Potomac River in Prince George’s County, would be a game-changer for Maryland’s existing casinos, especially the biggest one, Maryland Live!, which opened just this month near Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport in Anne Arundel County. The developers of Maryland Live! argue, with some reason, that their profits would be undercut by what Prince George’s officials envision as an $800 million casino located barely an hour’s drive away. The idea was to soften the blow for Maryland Live! — and sweeten the pot for all the state’s casinos — by allowing table games such as blackjack in addition to the slot machines that have already been authorized, as well as by increasing the gaming firms’ share of the take by lowering their taxes. But the House members of the gambling panel balked. It doesn’t much matter whether the delegates were reluctant to grant a tax break to gaming firms even as tax rates are rising for many Marylanders, as they said, or whether they merely wanted to protect Maryland Live!’s profit margins. In either case, a major gambling expansion lacks political support in the House for now. There are reasonable arguments for a high-end casino at National Harbor, one that would generate revenue for the state and county by attracting tourists, convention-goers and well-heeled locals from Northern Virginia and the District. But before rushing to build it, the state should ensure that its three existing casinos, especially the just-opened, $550 million Maryland Live!, have a running start. ****

Construction booms at Maryland Live casino as competitor MGM readies to open

Maryland’s largest casino is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar expansion, an effort to reinvent itself and maintain its footing in one of the most concentrated casino markets in the country. Faced with robust competition when MGM National Harbor opens in Prince George’s County later this year, Maryland Live, just 35 miles north in Anne Arundel County, is investing $200 million in a 17-story hotel and conference center, its largest addition since opening four years ago. The project will include a day spa, a 1,500-seat concert theater and new dining options — amenities that casino officials say are answers to growing customer demands, and also an acknowledgment of the imminent arrival of what is expected to be a fierce competitor. “In business, if you don’t adjust, you wither away,” said Rob Norton, president of Maryland Live casino. “We have no intention of going anywhere.” Said Norton: “Will our customers go down there and try the new casino? I absolutely expect them to go down and try it. I equally expect that they’ll be back for the great service that we give them.” MGM is promising the glamour of Las Vegas-style entertainment when it opens its highly anticipated $1.3 billion casino and resort on the banks of the Potomac River. Though it is branding itself as a destination resort, catering to Washington visitors, the new casinoon the Maryland-Virginia border threatens to lure away business from Maryland Live, more so than any of the state’s five casinos. Maryland Live is closest to Prince George’s and attracts significant business from MGM’s “prime feeder markets in Virginia,” according to a December 2013 study by Cummings Associates, a consulting company commissioned by the state gaming agency. As a result, Maryland Live is expected to lose 16 percent of its profits in 2019, the report said. Meanwhile, Horseshoe, which opened in Baltimore two years ago, will experience a more modest impact — with a projected loss of 7 percent. But industry experts and casino officials caution against putting too much weight on the projections, citing what have been traditionally imprecise gambling forecasts. “There’s definitely a significant number of Maryland Live players who are coming from the Washington, D.C., area, the Maryland suburbs and Northern Virginia who will probably find it more convenient to go play at National Harbor when it opens,” said James Karmel, a casino analyst and professor at Harford Community College. “It is very hard to quantify that. It might be 10 percent, it might be 20 percent. I’ll be surprised if it’s much higher.” Maryland Live did better than analysts predicted in meeting the challenge from Horseshoe and even exceeded revenue expectations. It has been averaging more than $50 million a month in gross gambling revenue this year — nearly double that of Horseshoe. “They have taken advantage of the location and also some really savvy marketing to develop a strong, loyal customer base,” Karmel said. An example is the casino’s courting of Asians, one of the region’s fastest-growing and most affluent ethnic populations. With gambling integrated in many Asian cultures, Maryland Live has invested in marketing to the group, cultural training for staff and creating dedicated spaces to accommodate those customers. For example, the casino held special Chinese New Year events and has expanded its International Player Development Department — a team of fluent speakers of Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. Still, Del. Pamela G. Beidle (D-Anne Arundel) worries that the proximity to MGM National Harbor will lead to the two casinos fighting for the same customers. “Now we have competition opening, it’s a concern,” she said, noting that revenue from Maryland Live has funded community projects in her county, including computers and software at schools and cultural events, library services and programs for the homeless. “I am hoping when the new casino opens at National Harbor that they may be catering to a different market.” Adding amenities and keeping up with property renovations could help Maryland Live maintain its position as a strong local and regional casino, officials and industry experts say. Although some agree it would be more difficult to compete with MGM’s international allure, they acknowledge its potential to increase the state’s gambling revenue pool. While most of the state’s gambling revenue comes from local and regional business, MGM is poised to attract visitors from up and down the East Coast, the continental United States and internationally. But MGM doesn’t plan to concede the Washington-area market. The gambling giant has been marketing National Harbor not only as a casino but also as an entertainment hub with something for everyone. The facility under construction with distant views of monumental Washington will feature a 24-story hotel with luxury suites, a day spa, a 3,000-seat concert hall and restaurants featuring culinary headliners such as José Andrés, Marcus Samuelsson and brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio. The casino will have 3,600 slot machines and 140 gambling tables. Projections prepared for the state in 2013 estimate that MGM National Harbor will generate between $713 million and $719 million in pretax gambling revenue in fiscal 2019 — roughly $60 million per month. Maryland Live, adjacent to the Arundel Mills Mall just 12 miles south of Baltimore, offers nearly 4,000 slot machines and more than 200 gambling tables to its more than 10 million annual visitors. Owned by Maryland-based Cordish Cos., the $500 million-plus property has a small live entertainment stage and eight restaurants, including the only casino buffet in the state. This summer, the casino will open an expanded option to its popular Asian restaurant and a taqueria that will offer “street-like” tacos, pupusas and other Latin American fare. After four years in business, Maryland Live continues to be the leading gambling facility in the state, contributing to a statewide record of $104.4 million in gross gambling revenue last month, according to data from the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. It generated $59.1 million from slots and tables — up more than $1 million over the previous month. The casino brought in $36.4 million from its 3,923 slot machines in May along with $22.7 million from table games — including $2 million from the 52-table poker room. “We have the luxury of being open and talking to our customers and know what they want,” said Maryland Live’s Norton. “People in this area love our convenience,” he said. “They love the warmth that they get from our team members and the variety that they get when they come to the Arundel Mills district, where they have 200 stores to shop at, 50 restaurants to pick from, the movie theaters, and the live entertainment venues. That is something that [the competitors] can’t match.” In contrast, Horseshoe generated $28.8 million in May from its 2,202 slot machines and 178 tables. Revenue from the state’s much smaller casinos in May was as follows: Hollywood Casino Perryville generated $6.9 million (850 slot machines/22 tables); Casino at Ocean Downs, $5.2 million (800 slot machines/no tables); and Rocky Gap Casino Resort, $4.4 million (634 slots and 18 tables). While many of Maryland Live’s players come from within a 25-mile radius, Norton said, casino officials hope the new onsite hotel accommodations will help attract customers from farther out and encourage locals to take a nearby getaway. The new facilities, slated for completion in late 2017, will have 310 guest rooms, including 52 luxury suites, a concert venue with a built-in performance stage and banquet seating capabilities for up to 800 people. It also includes a 24-hour casual dining cafe, a gelato shop, a retail store and about 1,000 additional parking spaces. It will create 500 construction jobs and 400 new permanent jobs, officials say. Even while MGM promises glamour, celebrity-chef restaurants and a monument-like building just outside the nation’s capital, Maryland Live will remain the state’s largest casino. Still, it remains to be seen whether the 350,000-square-foot addition and other improvements on the property will help it maintain its stature among the local and regional gamblers. “Our brand loves competition. We don’t back down from it,” Norton said. “Competition makes everybody better, so we look forward to MGM coming. . . . We think that we will have to operate even better than we have before.”

Gambling companies doubled down on lobbying Md. lawmakers over past year

Casino companies and other gambling interests dominate a new list of the top spenders on lobbying services in Maryland during the past year. The list, compiled by the State Ethics Commission, captures the millions that were spent trying to influence the General Assembly — both in person and over the airwaves — as it crafted an expanded gambling plan that was put to voters in November. The plan, which the public approved, allows a new casino in Prince George’s County as well as table games, such as blackjack and roulette, at Maryland’s existing slots locations. A group called Maryland Workers for National Harbor tops the list, with reported spending of more than $2.7 million to persuade lawmakers to enact the gambling plan. Much of that was spent on radio and television ads in advance of a special session in August. (Money spent on the subsequent multi-million ballot-issue campaign targeting voters is not included in the tally.) Funders of the workers group included the Peterson Cos., the developer of National Harbor, the 300-acre mini-city on the Potomac River that is widely considered the leading site for a Prince George’s casino. Penn National Gaming, which opposed the expansion plan, was also among the biggest spenders on lobbying services. Penn reported spending more than $913,000 during the reporting period, which ran from November 2011 through October 2012. The Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a national group that ran television and radio ads opposing the special session, reported spending more than $755,000. The group did not disclose the source of its funds for its Maryland activities. Another opponent of the plan, PPE Casino Resorts Maryland, reported spending more than $568,000 on lobbying. The company is a spinoff of the Cordish Cos. and owns Maryland Live!, the state’s largest existing casino, located in Anne Arundel County. Other interests that made the Top 10 on the list include the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights lobby, which was active on the same-sex marriage issue in Maryland this year. The HRC reported spending more than $494,000 on lobbying. Others in the Top 10 included some perennial big spenders on lobbying in Annapolis. Among them: the Maryland Association of Realtors, $693,310; the Maryland State Education Association, $564,477; the Maryland Hospital Association, $553,568; Verizon Maryland, $503,322; and the Baltimore Jewish Council, $432,013.

Was ‘House of Cards’ worth it for Maryland?

MARYLAND GOV.-ELECT Larry Hogan (R), who campaigned on a platform promising extensive but gauzily defined spending cuts, has just been handed a small gift by the state’s nonpartisan legislative analysts. In a new report, they concluded that for every dollar in tax credits that Maryland has lavished on film and TV productions — $62.5 million over the past three years, most of it for HBO’s “Veep” and the Netflix production “House of Cards” — state and local governments have reaped just 10 cents in tax revenue. If there’s a fatter target for Mr. Hogan’s budget-cutters, we don’t know what it is. Of course, going to the mattresses over subsidies for TV hits may cost Mr. Hogan more political capital in Annapolis than he’s prepared to spend. Last spring in the General Assembly, star-struck lawmakers swooned when they were personally lobbied to retain the subsidy by Kevin Spacey, who plays Frank Underwood, the amoral, supremely calculating star of “House of Cards.” Faced with a threat that the producers might pull up stakes, the legislature caved, diverting to the show funds that had been intended for arts programs. Score another victory for Frank Underwood. Yet it is increasingly clear that, despite the star power that attends hit shows, the actual benefits for Maryland taxpayers are modest. The shows do bring some business and revenue to local hotels, restaurants and gas stations frequented by production crews and others drawn to the enterprise. A study for the Maryland Film Industry Coalition made the inflated-sounding argument that TV shows and movies made in the state support nearly 700 full-time equivalent jobs and $86 million on an annual basis. Still, notwithstanding the economic activity generated during production, the legislative analysts said the funds expended by the state in tax credits simply do not yield much in the way of return on investment. “It is clear that the film credit does not pay for itself,” they concluded. What’s more, the benefits for the state cited by the industry last only as long as the TV shows and films themselves. When the films are finished and the shows are canceled, the jobs and economic activity go away. In using tax credits to attract business, lawmakers should focus on “incentives that create permanent and lasting” jobs, not the flash-in-the-pan variety generated by TV shows, the analysts said. No doubt, other states will continue to chase hit shows and filmmakers, making it difficult for Maryland simply to turn its back on the Hollywood flash and glitter. Still, at the least, Mr. Hogan could insist that Maryland drive a harder bargain. When National Geographic produced “Killing Lincoln” in Virginia, state officials there insisted that it also produce a commercial advertising the commonwealth’s tourist attractions. Score one for Virginia. **Read more about this topic:** The Post’s View: How to keep ‘House of Cards’ in Maryland at an acceptable price The Post’s View: After a stunning victory, Larry Hogan has to form his agenda The Post’s View: Maryland Gov.-elect Larry Hogan hates the ‘rain tax’ but offers few alternatives

Gambling’s unholy grip in Maryland

CASINO GAMBLING was the cart driving the horse in Annapolis in recent weeks. In the closing hours of the Maryland legislature’s session, the cart went on a joy ride and overturned, leaving the capital torn by recriminations and the state in disarray. Such is the outsize influence that gambling has come to exert in Maryland politics, particularly in the state Senate under President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.’s leadership. Early in the session Mr. Miller (D-Calvert), the legislature’s puppet master extraordinaire, had ordered up what was known as a “doomsday budget.” The idea was to draft a blueprint whose supposedly draconian cuts — really just 2 percent of the state’s general fund spending — would be so distasteful that lawmakers would embrace income tax increases rather than allow cuts to programs large (law enforcement and public and higher education) and small (scholarship grants meted out at the sole discretion of state senators and delegates). All was proceeding more or less according to plan until Mr. Miller’s pet project — expanding the state’s gambling program to authorize a sixth casino, in Prince George’s County, plus table games at existing ones — ran into opposition in the House of Delegates. Rather than let the gambling bill go down in flames, Mr. Miller let the clock run out. The legislature adjourned with no gambling bill, no income tax increases — and with a “doomsday” budget no one wanted. In a sense, it was a fittingly failed ending to what was a deeply unimpressive legislative session. With the notable exception of a bill to legalize gay marriage — a historic achievement if it’s upheld by voters at referendum in November — lawmakers mostly flailed this year. They approved a shamelessly gerrymandered election map, ignored Maryland’s severe shortfall in transportation funding, caved to pressure from the teachers unions on school funding rules and then crashed and burned in the closing hours. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) decried what he called the egos at work in holding state spending hostage to the gaming industry’s interests. Unfortunately, that has been a theme in Annapolis for years now, and it will continue to be until Mr. Miller leaves the stage. Lawmakers have gone home, but the jockeying is likely to continue over gambling, spending and taxes until a deal looks doable, at which point Mr. O’Malley will probably call the legislature back for a special session. It’s tempting to say he shouldn’t bother; just let the “doomsday budget” prevail for a year. In truth, many Marylanders would scarcely notice the difference, although there would be an impact on schools and other programs, particularly in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County. And no one besides gaming companies will mind that the state hasn’t added table games or a sixth casino, given the sluggish performance of the existing venues. Mr. O’Malley said it was a “damn shame” that lawmakers hadn’t been able to strike a deal on taxes and the budget. But the governor did nothing to interfere with the unholy interplay of gambling and politics that sabotaged the budget process. He simply said that expanding gambling was a distraction. Had he taken a more resolute stand, the state might not be in its current muddle. ****

A winning Mega Millions lottery ticket sold at Lady’s Liquor in La Plata, Md.

One winner of the $414 million Mega Millions lottery bought the ticket at a store called Lady’s Liquor in La Plata. Lottery officials in Maryland said two tickets — the one sold there and another bought at a gas station and convenience store in Florida — match all six numbers from Tuesday night’s drawing. The winning numbers are 11, 19, 24, 33 and 51 with a Mega Ball of 7. After sales were reconciled, Maryland lottery officials updated the total amount of the jackpot prize from $400 million to $414 million Wednesday. The jackpot has a cash option of $230.9 million. In Maryland, the winner would take home about $76.4 million after taxes, officials said. The Maryland winner, who has not stepped forward, has 182 days to claim the prize. But Maryland is one of six states that does not require the winner to disclose his or her name. Officials’ advice to Tuesday’s winner: Find your ticket, sign it, put it in a safe place, and seek legal and financial advice. Then come claim the prize. “I’ve seen people who come in the next day after finding out on the news the night before that they won,” said Stephen Martino, director of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. “They hadn’t slept. And they have to make a whole bunch of decisions.” The owner of Lady’s Liquor, 6474 Crain Hwy., will receive a $100,000 commission for selling the winning jackpot ticket. Manager Jay Jhala said he didn’t know who the lottery winner was but suspected it was one of his regular customers. He and his staff said they sold between 15 and 20 Mega Million tickets an hour over the past two days. “I hope it is one of the local guys who plays the lottery regularly,” he said. “Maybe it is their dream, and their wishes can come true.” Even though Maryland allows lottery winners to remain anonymous, about 25 percent allow lottery officials to identify them to the public. Tuesday’s jackpot is the third-largest lottery prize among Mega Millions jackpots, according to officials. The biggest Mega Millions jackpot was for $656 million in 2012 and included three tickets that were sold in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland. Three people who worked in public education shared Maryland’s portion— $218 million— of that jackpot. The Tuesday jackpot is also one of the largest wins in Maryland. Florida lottery officials said the winning ticket there was sold at a Sunoco convenience store on Merritt Island, southeast of Orlando. It is the first time a winning Mega Millions ticket has been sold in Florida since the state started selling the lottery drawing last year. The Tuesday drawing also had eight $1 million winners. One of those tickets was sold at Waterbury Liquors in Crownsville, Md. The Mega Millions game is played in 43 states, the District and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There’s a range of how winners deal with their newfound money. In the fall, a man who won a $189 million Mega Millions jackpot after buying a ticket at an Anne Arundel convenience store claimed his ticket with his family at lottery headquarters in Maryland. They hid their faces behind signs, which read: “We are so . . . blessed, excited, fortunate, happy!!” The man hid his winning ticket in an unplugged lamp for more than a week before claiming his prize. He said he dreamed that his relatives told him the winning numbers the night before he bought a ticket at a Dash In convenience store in Severn.

Does Maryland really want to be a pioneer on Internet gambling?

BEFORE LAST TUESDAY no one in Maryland had seriously considered allowing online gambling in a state that is having a hard enough time establishing the five casinos that were authorized by voters four years ago and is at odds over whether to permit a sixth. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, one of the existing slots casino owners — Cordish Cos., proprietor ofMaryland Live! — said it would tolerate new competition only if Maryland lawmakers granted it a lavish menu of tax breaks, budget giveaways, special considerations (like permitting casinos to operate 24 hours a day) and — why not? — the right to offer round- the-clock Internet gambling at the hardly-worth-mentioning tax rate of 10 percent. We don’t know why Cordish officials didn’t also ask for multi-million dollar annual cash transfers from taxpayers while they were at it; one can only speculate. Nonetheless, the firm’s brazen ask immediately seemed to pay off: No less a personage than Michael E. Busch, Democratic Speaker of the House of Delegates, took up the Internet gambling idea and suggested it was worth serious consideration. It isn’t. Mr. Busch has been a prominent skeptic when it comes to the steadily growing reach of the gambling industry in Maryland. It’s hard to say why he would open the door to such a radical expansion without some public debate. But he seemed to do just that, noting that in the past four years “every surrounding state with a gaming program has expanded to include table games and, in some cases, other forms of gambling.” He went on to urge that Maryland must expand its gambling program if it is to compete. Three slots casinos have opened so far in Maryland, and two more are on the way. There are arguments for permitting a sixth casino — specifically, at National Harbor in Prince George’s County — and for allowing all casinos to offer table games like poker as well as slot machines. Although revenue projections have so far looked too sunny, casinos will yield badly needed funds for the state. An upscale casino at National Harbor wouldn’t do much for the county’s image, in our view, but it could fill the county’s coffers that are chronically depleted by a local property tax cap. However, Internet gambling is another thing altogether. Just one state, Delaware, has so far authorized online betting — Gov. Jack Markell (D) signed the legislation only two months ago — but it will be some years before gamblers can play virtual slots and table games that pay, and take, real money. Unlike brick-and-mortar venues, online gambling cannot be sold as a significant creator of construction or casino jobs. And no one has figured out how to ensure that gamblers playing on smart phones, tablets or laptops are of legal age, within the borders of a given state, or even sober enough to gamble responsibly. Maryland has not figured out how to mitigate the expected losses that existing casinos would face if a new casino came on the scene. It hasn’t worked out the scope of expansion, relevant future tax rates, or countless other details that would determine the revenues and contours of gambling in the state. It hasn’t sold a vision of the future to the state’s voters, who will have the final say at referendum. Why would lawmakers suddenly want Annapolis to force the state into the role of a pioneer in online gambling? **Read more from Opinions:** The Post’s View: Rolling the dice on gambling in Maryland Heather Mizeur: More gambling isn’t the answer for Maryland’s economy The Post’s View: High stakes in Maryland

Maryland Live Casino’s winning streak continues with another $50 million month

Maryland Live Casino is still coming up aces. The airport-terminal-size casino at Arundel Mills brought in $50.4 million in gross gambling revenue in September, the fifth consecutive month that it’s cleared at least $50 million on its slot machines and table games. According to State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency figures released Monday, the September haul included $2.3 million from Maryland Live’s high-volume poker room, which opened to crowds and buzz in late August. The split-level, 52-table card room — on most days the second-busiest poker room in the country behind California’s Commerce Casino — has killed most of the poker action at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia. But it’s also dealt a bad beat to Hollywood Casino’s sister property in Maryland: Poker revenue was down by more than 60 percent from the five-month average at Hollywood Casino in Perryville. Hollywood Perryville — the first Free State casino to offer Texas hold ’em and other poker games — opened with eight tables in March and added two more in late June to accommodate demand. Collectively, Maryland’s four casinos raked in more than $65 million in September, falling about 10 percent short of August’s record for the state’s rapidly expanding gambling sector. Still, excluding Rocky Gap Casino, the small resort that opened in May in Western Maryland, September year-over-year casino revenue in the state was up about 45 percent, , or $19.3 million — almost entirely due to the addition of table games at Maryland Live and Hollywood Perryville, which generated $19.2 million in gross revenue. Casino at Ocean Downs, the state’s fourth casino, does not yet have table games. Last November, Maryland voters approved a dramatic expansion of casino gambling, including the addition of live-action Las Vegas-style table games. Slot revenue at Maryland Live and Hollywood Casino Perryville is taxed at 67 percent. Rocky Gap and Casino at Ocean Downs pay lower rates: 50 percent and 43 percent, respectively. Hollywood, Maryland Live and Rocky Gap send 20 percent of table-game revenue to the state. More than $25 million was sent to the state’s Education Trust Fund in September.

Rivals for Prince George’s casino license make their cases to Md. commission

The three gambling operators trying to win a coveted casino license in Prince George’s County made their formal, chest-thumping pitches last week. Now, the seven members of the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission will consider the bidders’ projections and promises and do some due diligence before picking a winner. The high-stakes prize: permission to build a Las Vegas-style resort in a part of Maryland near Washington and Northern Virginia — a destination property that could generate more than $1 billion a year in gross gambling revenue, according to one applicant’s public analysis. A decision on whether the state’s sixth and final casino license will go to MGM Resorts International, Penn National Gaming or Greenwood Racing is likely to be made before Christmas, said the commission’s chairman, Donald C. Fry. But he said that in awarding each of the state’s first five licenses, the commission had only one applicant left at this point in the process and, therefore, finds itself in unfamiliar territory “This is the first time it’s been truly competitive at the decision-making stage, which is what the legislature always intended to have,” Fry said. Considering multiple proposals “complicates things,” said Fry, a former Democratic state senator who was appointed to chair the commission by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) in 2008. “I shouldn’t say ‘complicates,’ but it changes the dynamic.” On Friday, the last day of presentations, Fry was visiting one of the three sites proposed by the three competitors: a dusty gravel parking lot overlooking the Potomac River near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge that MGM Resorts International would like to transform into a gambling mecca. By the summer of 2016, the 23-acre site could house MGM National Harbor, a $925 million casino that would have 3,600 slot machines, 140 gaming tables, a 300-room hotel tower, several celebrity chefs, a concert theater, a spa and other amenities. Traffic rumbled past on the nearby Capital Beltway as men and women in dark suits crowded around architectural renderings and models of MGM National Harbor, a dramatic, national monument-inspired property that would have its own reflecting pool. “I have to win this, or my wife will kill me,” MGM Resorts Chairman Jim Murren joked. “She’s from Maryland.” The Prince George’s casino license was approved by Maryland voters in November as part of a dramatic expansion of gambling in the state, including the addition of live-action table games and 24-hour casino operations. MGM spent more than $40 million to push for the referendum’s passage. Penn National Gaming spent more than $42 million to fight the plan, most likely to protect the profits of the company’s cash cow, Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, W.Va., according to analysts. Now, with gambling revenue falling significantly in Charles Town, the casino has been laying off dealers and taking some of its table games offline. The director of the West Virginia Lottery told reporters last week that the casino’s woes are directly related to Maryland’s gambling growth. The news came as Penn National officials appeared before the Maryland commission to present a proposal for a $700 million Hollywood Casino at Rosecroft Raceway, with 3,000 slot machines, 140 table games, a 258-room hotel, a convention center and a new grandstand for Rosecroft’s historic harness-racing track. On Wednesday, an affiliate of Greenwood Racing made a pitch for a $761 million Parx Casino Hotel & Spa on what is now a 22-acre wooded lot in Fort Washington. The company proposes to install more slot machines (4,750) and more table games (170) than the other operators. The Parx proposal includes a $100 million pledge to fund improvements to traffic-choked Indian Head Highway. Greenwood also offered to pay a 67 percent slots tax, which is 5 percent higher than the state-mandated rate. MGM and Penn would keep the rate at 62 percent. Penn made a splash with its own proposal by promising to turn over all of its profits, in perpetuity, to benefit the county health-care system as well as a new retirement benefit for teachers and other community organizations and nonprofit groups. The total giveaway, over the first 15 years of operation, would be well over $300 million, the company said. During MGM’s presentation to the commission, at the Friendly High School auditorium, Commissioner D. Bruce Poole asked whether the company is considering anything similar. “Thank God, no,” Murren said. “I thought that was a very clever headline. But I’ve spent too much time on Wall Street to be snookered by that one.” MGM, he said, was proposing to invest more money in the county and state than the other applicants, and it would generate more property tax and gambling revenue, in a better location, with the fewest traffic concerns and the best marketing outreach. It would also open the nicest of the three proposed casinos, he said, run by the company with the strongest brand. “We are the preeminent operator,” Murren said. “I think there’s no doubt of that.” All the boasting and most of the bid-sweeteners may not matter much while the unpaid commissioners deliberate, said James Karmel, a casino analyst at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Md. “The commission has a quite specific set of criteria laid out by the state that’s heavily weighted on the business model,” Karmel said. “There are other factors, but it comes back to the potential for these proposed casinos to produce revenue.” By law, 70 percent of the commission’s decision should be based on “business and market factors.” There are nine in all, including having “the highest potential benefit and highest prospective total revenues” for the state and the likelihood that the casino “will be a substantial regional and national tourist destination.” Economic-development factors account for 15 percent of the evaluation factors, with infrastructure and community impact making up the other 15 percent. But the most interesting “percentage” of the week could prove to be 67. The Parx offer to pay a higher slots tax than the other applicants would result in an additional $30 million in annual tax revenue, a company spokesman said. The commission is allowed to negotiate with the applicants, who, in turn, can submit revised proposals. But the odds are probably against the commission asking MGM Resorts or Penn National to revise their tax rates, Karmel said. “It would be remarkable for them to play off the different bidders like that. I don’t think the commission wants what would amount to a bidding war. It could get very complicated and make what’s already a challenging process even harder and maybe lead to legal issues.” Still, Karmel said, what the Parx group is proposing “really says something about the potential profitability of this license.” A market analysis commissioned by the Greenwood Racing group showed that by the third year of operation, a Parx casino in Fort Washington would generate $812 million in gross gambling revenue on the low end and $1.02 billion on the high end. MGM officials said their “conservative” third-year projection was about $650 million. Maryland Live, which opened in Anne Arundel County in mid-2012 and is currently the state’s largest casino, is projecting $621 million in gross gambling revenue for the current fiscal year, according to a document sent to the state Lottery and Gaming Control Agency this month. The state location commission has hired consultants to do a financial analysis.

Maryland casino ad war fueled by more than $20.5 million from gambling companies

In barely a month, companies with competing stakes in the future of casino gambling in Maryland have already poured more than $20.5 million into the November referendum effort, nearly as much as the candidates spent over the course of the state’s last governor’s race. The eye-popping sums — which are expected to escalate in coming weeks as the vote draws closer — are being used to fund a seemingly nonstop ad war on television and radio. Some spots tout the jobs and education dollars that would flow from the gambling expansion plan on the ballot; others warn viewers not to get “played” by such promises. The money has rushed in at a rate of more than $660,000 a day, and on Friday, a group led by Caesars Entertainment reported ponying up an additional $1.2 million for the pro-expansion cause. Among proponents, the biggest spender has been MGM Resorts, the gambling behemoth that owns several casinos on the Las Vegas strip and is angling to build a new casino in Prince George’s County. So far it has spent $8.4 million. There is only one funding source so far on the other side, but it is also a huge gambling company willing to lay down millions. Penn National Gaming — whose casino in Charles Town, W.Va., stands to lose from an expansion in Maryland — has kicked in $9.5 million to the effort to defeat the ballot question, which would also allow table games at Maryland’s five previously authorized slots sites. The casino that MGM wants to build at National Harbor, the mini-city on the Potomac River, would literally transform the region’s landscape, becoming one of the first landmarks motorists see as they cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Maryland. It also has the potential to be one of the most lucrative on the East Coast, drawing residents from the District and Virginia, where casino-style gambling remains illegal, as well as tourists and other visitors to the Washington area from around the globe. The developer of National Harbor and the owners of a planned casino in Baltimore have also made smaller contributions to the pro-expansion campaign. Penn has two properties in Maryland that arguably could benefit from the plan: a slots venue in Cecil County, which could draw more patrons with table games; and a racetrack in Prince George’s, where Penn could bid to build a full- fledged casino. But most analysts say it is more important for Penn to protect the larger casino it operates in Charles Town, which has been a favorite of Maryland gamblers, particularly those from Montgomery County. That facility stands to take another hit if another large-scale Maryland casino opens about 70 miles away at National Harbor in 2016, as projected. What’s unfolding in Maryland “is very much like a high-stakes poker game,” similar to what has played out in several other states when lucrative casino licenses are at stake, said William Eadington, an economist at the University of Nevada at Reno. “There’s always a gamble you’re not going to prevail,” he said. “But if you can spend $30 million to $40 million to win or protect something worth hundreds of millions, it’s not a bad bet.” The money in Maryland is being channeled through a pair of ballot-issue committees, set up specifically for the referendum campaign. Unlike races among candidates, there are no limits in Maryland on what individuals or corporations can contribute to such committees. In candidate races, the limit is $4,000 every four years, except for political action committees, which may give $6,000. That’s one reason the spending on the gambling issue is about to blow past the roughly $22 million that Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) collectively spent in their 2010 contest.The gambling ads have arrived particularly early and often for Maryland elections in the Washington market, which is far more expensive than Baltimore. “We’re prepared to spend what is necessary to make sure the truth about Question 7 is not drowned out by a barrage of misleading ads put up by a company protecting its West Virginia casino,” said Gordon Absher, a spokesman for MGM, which has never contributed to a statewide ballot measure before. Penn has a history of using its vast resources to advance and protect its interests. In 2008, the company contributed nearly $38 million to a campaign to defeat a proposed Ohio casino that could have undercut Penn’s business at a nearby property in Indiana. In 2009, Penn gave $20 million to an effort to allow four new casinos in Ohio, two of which it would own. Penn was also a contributor in 2008 to the campaign to allow slots in Maryland, giving $2 million. The total spending on that ballot issue was little more than $8 million. The ballot-issue committee supported this year by MGM, billing itself as “For Maryland Jobs & Schools,” has highlighted in its TV ads the promise of new construction and permanent casino jobs, drawing figures in some cases from studies commissioned by interests that favor passage of the plan. The “world-class resort casino” will also produce “hundreds of millions for Maryland schools,” according to the ads. That claim, while vague, could prove true over time and is backed up by the estimates of state legislative analysts. But the revenue estimated in 2007, when Maryland launched its slots program, has been slow to materialize. For this fiscal year, analysts are expecting less than half of the revenue projected. The ads by the opposing group, billed as “Get the Facts — Vote No on 7,” have tried to pick apart what it describes as the other side’s “empty claims.” The ads correctly point out that there is no guarantee that overall spending on education in Maryland will necessarily increase as a result of casino money earmarked for schools. The Penn-funded ads also decry past instances where the number of casino jobs have been oversold and complain that the plan passed by the General Assembly “cuts taxes for billionaire casino special interests.” The ads make no mention that Penn’s casino in Cecil County would be among those eligible for a lower tax rate if the ballot question passes. Lawmakers agreed to lower rates for several casinos to compensate them for the increased competition that would come with a Prince George’s venue. Besides MGM’s contributions, the pro-expansion side has received $400,000 from the Peterson Cos., the developer of National Harbor; and $2.3 million from a group of investors that includes Caesars Entertainment, which is planning to open a casino in downtown Baltimore in 2014. Caesars is not eager to have additional competition in Prince George’s, but company officials have said the expansion plan is an overall plus because it would allow table games, expanding its customer base. The expansion plan calls for taking bids for the Prince George’s casino from a swath of the county that includes National Harbor and Rosecroft Raceway, the harness track owned by Penn. Penn officials have complained that the bidding process will be stacked against them because Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) and others have championed National Harbor as their preferred casino site. Penn officials have also argued that their stated willingness to build a $500 million casino at Rosecroft proves that their interests extend beyond Charles Town. Requests for interviews with Penn officials were directed to a spokesman for the ballot-issue committee, who declined to discuss Charles Town. Kevin McLaughlin, the committee spokesman,said the “entire goal” of the Penn-funded campaign is to get facts out about the other side’s claims. “Claims that are being made about jobs and education funding don’t pass muster,” he said. Jeff Hooke, a Washington-area gambling consultant, said any suggestion that Penn is not being motivated by Charles Town is “total fiction.” “Penn National has a lot to lose if the referendum passes,” Hooke said. Perhaps the biggest wild card in the fight over the expansion plan is the owner of Maryland Live!, the state’s largest casino, in Anne Arundel County. During the legislative debate over expanded gambling, the casino’s parent company, the Cordish Cos., argued vociferously that the addition of a casino in neighboring Prince George’s would unfairly cut into its customer base in the Washington region. As of Friday, Cordish had not contributed to either side in the debate. Contacted by e-mail late in the week, David Cordish, the company’s chairman, declined to comment.

Maryland casinos generate $86.8 million in revenue in October

Maryland casinos raked in $86.8 million in gaming revenue in October, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency reported Wednesday. Excluding Horseshoe Baltimore, which opened in August, state casino revenue is down modestly by 3 percent, compared with October 2013.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University   *[Tue]: Tuesday   *[Wed]: Wednesday   *[UNM]: University of New Mexico Despite dire predictions that Horseshoe would steal a chunk of revenue from Maryland Live, the Arundel Mills casino held its own in October, reporting $50.3 million in revenue. That represents a decrease of about 3 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. Perhaps with an eye to silencing any doubters, Maryland Live president and general manager Rob Norton trumpeted the routine data drop, calling October’s results “incredibly strong” and “showing only a slight deviation to the previous year and greatly exceeding the State’s projections despite new competition.” Maryland Live officials also said the suburban casino has been the top performer in the entire mid-Atlantic gaming market for the past year. October marked Horseshoe Baltimore’s second full month of operation. It generated $22.5 million in gaming revenue. The casino by M&T Bank Stadium may be having a bigger impact on Hollywood Casino Perryville than on Maryland Live. Perryville took the biggest hit of the Free State’s five casinos in October and saw its revenue drop 11 percent, year over year, to $6.1 million. Casino at Ocean Downs generated $4.1 million, down 2.7 percent compared with October 2013. Rocky Gap reported $3.8 million in revenue, an 11 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

Winning $1 million lottery ticket sold in Howard County

Maryland lottery officials said Monday they are looking for the winner of a $1 million ticket that was sold in Howard County. The winning ticket was bought at a 7-Eleven store in the 6500 block of Old Waterloo Road in Elkridge. It was one of four tickets sold across the country that matched five of the winning numbers in a Saturday Powerball drawing. The winning numbers were 24-29-38-48-52. The Power Ball number was 32. The other winning tickets were sold in Texas, Iowa and Pennsylvania. There was no winner of the Powerball jackpot so it now rolls to $121 million for the next drawing. Officials warn the winner to sign the back of the ticket right away and put it in a safe spot. The winner has 182 days to claim the prize — in person — at the lottery headquarters in Baltimore. It isn’t uncommon, lottery officials said, for winners to take several days — or even weeks — to claim the prize. Others want to keep their identity hidden. Last year, a man who won a $189 million Mega Millions jackpot after buying a ticket at an Anne Arundel convenience store claimed his ticket with his family at lottery headquarters in Maryland. They hid their faces behind signs, which read: “We are so . . . blessed, excited, fortunate, happy!!” The man hid his winning ticket in an unplugged lamp for more than a week before claiming his prize. He said he dreamed that his relatives told him the winning numbers the night before he bought a ticket at a Dash In convenience store in Severn.

Powerball numbers drawn for $900M jackpot

With word that the Powerball jackpot had reached $900 million — just hours before the scheduled drawing — lottery fever had blossomed Saturday into a full on epidemic. In the District, lottery officials were giddy with the prospect that the winning ticket (or tickets) might be bought right here in the nation’s capital, which hasn’t had a winner since 2009, according to Tracey Cohen, interim executive director of the D.C. Lottery. The way she sees it, the city is due. “It’s so exciting,” she said. “For someone who’s been in the business for 16 years, I’ve dreamed of something this big but never seen it until now.” The winning numbers announced late Saturday night were 16, 19, 32, 34, 57 and as the powerball number, 13. It was not immediately known if anyone had a ticket with them all. But before the drawing, many people shared in the excitement. In Virginia, lottery officials said they were selling about $600,000 in tickets every hour and expected those number to pick up in the late afternoon and evening. By 10 p.m. — less than an hour before the much-anticipated drawing -- spokeswoman Jill Vaughn said officials expected they would sell $13 million in tickets. Carole Everett, spokeswoman for the Maryland lottery, said they’d sold nearly $2 million in tickets by Saturday afternoon. In just one hour, the state tallied more than $655,000 in ticket sales. On Wednesday, when the jackpot was a mere $500 million, the state sold $6 million worth of tickets. Still, amid all the fantasizing likely going on in the 44 states that are part of the multi-state Powerball Lottery, we must remind you that your chances of winning are 292 million to 1. In short, you have a better chance of being struck by lighting this year (or in your lifetime) than winning this jackpot. Even so, it’s good to know what your options would be, should you get incredibly lucky. According to lottery officials, the winner would have the option of being paid $900 million through annual payments over 29 years or opting for a $558 million lump-sum cash payout. Even though no one had the winning numbers from Wednesday’s drawing — 2, 11, 47, 62 and 63, and the Powerball number 17 — about a dozen people won either $1 million or $2 million prizes. The winners were in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington state. The record-breaking jackpot also is good news for the Multi-State Lottery Association, which is trying to recover from a five-year-old investigation into jackpot fixing in at least five states. The organization’s security expert eventually was convicted of fraud and sentenced to a decade in prison and the man who ran the lottery association was quietly put on leave. Officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association say odds are with so many tickets being sold, someone or a bunch of someones likely will win this jackpot. Even so, if there is no winner on Saturday, the jackpot will rollover to roughly $1.3 billion. Yes folks, that’s billion with a “B.”

Atlantic City on losing streak, as more states compete for gambling revenue and jobs

The billboard hard by the Atlantic City Expressway is supposed to speak for a single casino, not an entire company town. But Revel Casino Resort’s marketing slogan resonates loudly throughout this struggling seaside resort. “Gamblers Wanted,” it says. And how. Atlantic City, the erstwhile East Coast gambling mecca, is on an epic losing streak; over the past six years, competitive and economic forces have crushed the local casino economy, driving revenue down more than 40 percent. Once, the city that inspired the board game Monopoly had its own gambling monopoly on this side of the country. Now, it’s more Marvin Gardens than Boardwalk, with states from Maryland to Maine lining up to join the high-stakes game for tax revenue and middle-class jobs. In 2006, when gambling in Atlantic City reached record levels, there were 27 commercial and tribal casinos, slots parlors and racetrack casinos in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, according to the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth’s Center for Policy Analysis. Now, there are 55 — with more casinos coming in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Pennsylvania, which first allowed casino gambling in 2006, surpassed New Jersey last year as the second-largest U.S. gambling market (after Nevada), with players choosing convenience (a single casino close to home) over critical mass (there are a dozen casinos in Atlantic City, that state’s only gambling locale). In Maryland, which has embarked on its own massive gambling expansion, casino revenue tripled in the latest fiscal year. Thirteen months after opening, Maryland Live Casino — which has hired dozens of dealers and gaming supervisors away from Atlantic City — rivals the ocean resort’s biggest player, Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. In July, Maryland’s largest casino collected $52.4 million from its slot machines and table games, compared with $64.2 million at Borgata. This month, the Arundel Mills casino will open a 52-table poker room that analysts say is likely to pull even more business out of Atlantic City. As if to punctuate the shifting fortunes, poker at Maryland Live will launch Aug. 28 just as the opulent if oft-empty poker room closes at Revel, a $2.4 billion beachfront property that filed for bankruptcy less than a year after it opened. There are still profits being made around Atlantic City, where the first casino opened on the historic boardwalk 31 / 2 decades ago. But the barrier- island town has been losing its lifeblood business at a breathtaking clip. In 2006, gross gambling revenue here was a record $5.2 billion. The total has gone down every year since; in 2012, the number was barely over $3 billion — the lowest mark since 1991. “The situation there has become catastrophic,” said Steve Norton, a gambling analyst with a long history in Atlantic City, where he opened the first casino, Resorts International, in 1978. (His son, Robert Norton, runs Maryland Live.) And the outlook isn’t any better this year, even as surveys suggest Atlantic City’s image is improving: In the first half of 2013, gambling revenue was off by nearly 11 percent. Officials tout increased luxury-tax and occupancy-tax revenue, which indicate increased spending on non-gambling activities and attractions and on lodging in roughly 20,000 rooms. But Atlantic City is a gambling-   dependent city with a gambling-based economy that is shrinking rapidly. “It’s dismal,” said David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. “They have serious issues.” And more threats loom. In November, New Yorkers will vote on a major casino-expansion measure. One recent morning, in the shadow of the Trump Taj Mahal, men and women in suits went about the work of saving Atlantic City. “What we need to do is try to rebrand and reimagine Atlantic City as a national destination,” said John Palmieri, who was appointed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) to run the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. Christie has called the city’s revitalization “a key priority” of his administration. His photo is displayed in the lobby of the converted firehouse, where state employees have been tasked with turning his bet into a winner. Legal sports books at casinos and horse tracks around the state could help. New Jersey voters approved a sports-betting measure in 2011, but it was blocked by a federal judge. The state has appealed. Palmieri’s agency is not directly responsible for improving gambling revenue. Instead it focuses on making Atlantic City a more attractive place to visit and on trying to gin up more convention and meeting business. (Atlantic City has just a tiny fraction of the $16 billion meetings market in the Northeast, according to the reinvestment authority.) “We need market,” said Tom Ballance, the president and chief operating officer of Borgata, where revenue has declined at a more modest rate than most other Atlantic City properties. More than 27 million people visited Atlantic City last year, according to South Jersey Transportation Authority estimates. But blight and crime have been scaring visitors away, Palmieri said. So the reinvestment authority, which takes a cut of gambling revenue from the casinos to fund its efforts, has been trying to clean up the city by knocking down eyesores, opening neighborhood parks, adding art installations and new landscaping and underwriting commercial and residential projects. “We need to make it more inviting and give people a sense of comfort,” Palmieri said. “We are trying to make a statement to people who haven’t visited Atlantic City for years because they think it isn’t safe.” Reality hasn’t fully cooperated: Shortly before Memorial Day last year, two Canadian tourists — an 80-year-old woman and her daughter — were stabbed to death in broad daylight near Bally’s Casino. Wander too far from the casinos now, and you’ll quickly be reminded that it’s been years since Atlantic City was a prosperous place. Revel, an eye-popping glass high-rise that screams Las Vegas luxe, is close to a run-down housing project. There’s a soup kitchen next to the reinvestment authority’s parking lot and a methadone clinic nearby. Pawn shops are everywhere. Nearly a third of the 40,000 residents here live below the federal poverty line, and the homeless problem is serious enough that the reinvestment authority runs daily sweeps beneath the boardwalk to flush out guests from “the Underwood Hotel,” as some locals call it. Still, there are signs of improvement all over Atlantic City, most significantly on the boardwalk, which has been cleaned up — and opened up by the casinos, some of which once limited physical and visual access to the waterfront in an effort to keep customers inside. At Resorts, where ocean-facing windows were once covered with brick, the new Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant spills onto the boardwalk, across from the Landshark bar, where a song by Kenny Chesney was blaring on a recent afternoon. Hundreds of people were on the beach near the bar. “You never used to see that,” said Don Guardian, director of the reinvestment authority’s special improvement division. “People went for the casino, not for the resort.” The changes will be showcased in September when the Miss America pageant returns to its birthplace for the first time since moving to Las Vegas in 2006. Earlier this month, in anticipation of the pageant’s homecoming, a crew was replacing the sidewalks around Boardwalk Hall, which was glistening after a power wash. Miss America was a marketing gambit itself, cooked up to sell the idea of Atlantic City as a year-round resort (or at least one that didn’t shut down after Labor Day). With the pageant’s return, that message can be reamplified along with another, more urgent one: Atlantic City is back, with more to do than ever. (In reality, Atlantic City never went anywhere — not even after Hurricane Sandy, which blew through without much incident.) There are more nightclubs, more restaurants, more concerts, more burlesque shows, more shopping, more outdoor activities, more walkable spaces, more _stuff_ , including beach volleyball courts and a high-tech light show that’s beamed onto the backside of Boardwalk Hall every night. ****“We’re trying to change the old perception that there’s not enough to do here,” said Liza Cartmell, president of the Atlantic City Alliance, a casino- funded nonprofit organization that’s responsible for the city’s marketing. A “Do AC” campaign is being pushed aggressively up and down the East Coast. In Baltimore, an important secondary feeder market, the Atlantic City Alliance is spending nearly $2 million on advertising in 2013. According to the most recent internal research, positive perceptions of Atlantic City are on the rise. “We’re making progress,” Cartmell said. But her bosses — the eight casino executives on the Atlantic City Alliance board — probably won’t be applauding her at a meeting anytime soon. Gamblers still wanted, she said. “They won’t be happy until they see their gaming revenues go up.”

Maryland Senate approves casino bill

A bill that would allow a full-fledged casino in Prince George’s County and add Las Vegas-style table games at Maryland’s five other slots venues was approved Tuesday by the state Senate, providing late-session momentum for the controversial measure. The 35 to 11 vote sent the legislation to the House of Delegates, where leaders remained noncommittal Tuesday about its prospects. The bill is the largest attempted expansion of gambling in Maryland since voters approved the state’s slots program in 2008. House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said his chamber will look at the potential revenue for the state and the impact a new casino might have on existing operators. And he said the views of Prince George’s delegates would factor heavily during the remaining two weeks of the 90-day session. “Certainly it’s imperative that a majority of the Prince George’s delegation be supportive of any legislation that puts a location in their county,” Busch said. In the Senate, the measure was backed by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), who touted the lopsided vote on “a very good bill.” “We have a revenue shortage in the state, and people much prefer this to tax increases,” said Miller, whose legislative district includes a part of Prince George’s. The bill — which is expected to generate tens of millions of additional dollars in state and county tax revenue — would seek competitive bids for a facility in a western swath of Prince George’s. The territory includes both National Harbor, the 300-acre mixed-use development on the banks of the Potomac River; and Rosecroft Raceway, the recently reopened harness racetrack in Fort Washington. Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) has championed his vision of a billion-dollar “high-end” casino at National Harbor as the best way to generate jobs and draw gamblers from the District and Northern Virginia. Two of the eight Prince George’s senators voted against the measure Tuesday. Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D), whose district includes both potential locations, has complained that Baker’s advocacy for National Harbor has skewed the process. Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D) said he thinks the county should focus its economic development efforts elsewhere. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t be bringing in research and technology as economic engines in the county, not gambling,” Pinsky said. Several House members from Prince George’s share that view, and on Tuesday, the delegation’s leader, Melony G. Griffith (D), said state lawmakers from her county remain “virtually split” on the prospect of a Prince George’s casino. “I would not say it’s impossible that a bill moves,” Griffith said. “But it would be more than a heavy lift for proponents, of which I am not one, and the clock is ticking.” Under Maryland law, any major gambling expansion requires a statewide vote. The bill that passed the Senate would also prevent a casino from coming to Prince George’s if a majority of county voters do not support the idea in the statewide referendum. Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters (D-Prince George’s), who sponsored the bill, cited that safeguard as essential to his support. He has also stressed that the Prince George’s County Council, through its zoning power, would have effective veto power over a casino. The owner of Maryland Live!, a slots facility scheduled to open in June in neighboring Anne Arundel County, has staunchly opposed a Prince George’s casino, arguing that it would severely cut into Maryland Live!’s market share. With a planned 4,750 slot machines, Maryland Live! is envisioned as the state’s largest casino and one of the largest of its kind in the country. Four of the “nay” votes Tuesday came from senators — two Democrats and two Republicans — who represent portions of Anne Arundel. In an attempt to offset potential losses at previously approved sites, the Senate bill increases the share of slots proceeds that casino operators would keep to 40 percent, from 33 percent, and it allows them to keep 90 percent of proceeds from table games. The bill also shifts ownership responsibility for slot machines from the state to casino owners in 2013. At that point, the share of proceeds kept by owners would rise an additional eight percentage points. When lawmakers launched Maryland’s slots program in 2007, they reasoned that state control of the machines would provide more security. But legislative analysts now play down the security benefit and concede that the cost has far exceeded their initial estimates. The Senate bill also includes a sweetener for Prince George’s lawmakers. It attempts to resolve a long-running dispute over a wealth formula for education funding that has divided Prince George’s and Montgomery lawmakers. A provision in the gambling bill would result in Prince George’s getting an additional $13 million a year while Montgomery would not lose any funding. Del. Frank S. Turner (D-Howard), who chairs a House subcommittee with jurisdiction over gambling issues, said there are many “moving parts” in the debate. Among them: a separate bill pending in the House that would allow table games at the five previously authorized casinos and not add a Prince George’s location. “We’re going to look at this carefully, and we’ll see how many of these moving parts move,” Turner said.

Md.’s largest casino collects $586 million; Va. sheriff seeks shooting victim’s ID

Thirteen was a lucky number for Maryland Live. The state’s largest casino collected $586 million in gross gambling revenue in 2013, according to data released Tuesday by the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. The pretax haul included nearly $153 million from live-action table games, which Maryland Live began offering in April. Maryland’s four casinos generated nearly $750 million in total gambling revenue last year. About $415 million was collected in taxes, including $315 million that went to the Education Trust Fund. Statewide, casino revenue in December totaled $65 million, with Maryland Live contributing the bulk of it: $52 million. It was the Arundel Mills casino’s eighth consecutive month of $50 million or more in gross gambling revenue. **— J. Freedom du Lac** **** The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help in identifying a man whose skeletal remains were found more than 25 years ago near Purcellville. The sheriff’s office said the body, wrapped in a blanket, was discovered March 8, 1988, on Sunny Ridge Road. The man had been shot, the office said. Sheriff’s officials described the man as white or Hispanic, in his 50s, about 5 foot 8 to 5 foot 10, having a “stocky build” and maybe reddish-brown hair, and wearing Sears-brand black polyester pants with a 42-inch waist and 29-inch inseam, as well as red socks. A full upper denture was found next to his body, according to the office. **— Patrick Svitek**

Prince George’s bets on MGM

PRACTICALLY FROM the moment in 2007 that officials in Annapolis discovered that Marylanders playing slot machines in Delaware and West Virginia were exporting about $150 million annually to the tax collectors of those two states, Maryland has mounted a breakneck campaign to build casinos and milk them for revenue. In a relatively small state, four casinos have opened; a fifth, in Baltimore, will be launched next year. Plans for the sixth — the glitzy jewel in the crown — were unveiled Friday when a state commission chose MGM Resorts to build, just south of the District line in Prince George’s County, a huge casino and resort , a Las Vegas-style pleasure palace dedicated to gambling, entertainment, celebrity-chef-branded restaurants and around-the- clock conspicuous consumption. The MGM casino, a $925 million behemoth along the banks of the Potomac at National Harbor, is projected to open in 2016. Even allowing for exaggerated projections, the state could be raking in something approaching $1 billion in tax revenue from gambling  by the end of this decade. Whatever reservations some Marylanders (and we) had about gambling, state voters authorized all six casinos by referendum, and the revenue the casinos generate, if well-managed, could help ease budgetary pressures. Much of it is supposed to be spent on education. Analysts say MGM’s National Harbor casino, which will have 3,600 slot machines and 140 gaming tables, could be the most lucrative casino on the East Coast. The complex, the length of five football fields, would be topped by an 18-story glass spire encasing 300 hotel suites overlooking the river and, about 10 miles to the north, the Capitol itself — mammon gazing down upon the machinations of mere politicians. MGM chief James J. Murren insists that at National Harbor the company will put a damper on the usual Las Vegas casino aesthetic, in deference to the serious business conducted across the border in the nation’s capital. The idea, hatched originally by Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and National Harbor developer Milt Peterson, is an undertaking so insistently upscale that it will attract high- rollers from Virginia and the District as well as business types visiting from out of town. Many residents of Prince George’s, the least affluent of the District’s close-in suburbs, would be priced out. Nonetheless, Prince George’s and Maryland would be the main financial beneficiaries — after MGM itself, of course. By its fifth year in operation, the casino at National Harbor will pay $333 million in state taxes, according to one of several consultants hired by the state. In addition, the project is expected to generate thousands of jobs. We still find much to dislike in a growing dependence on this industry. But if the payoff is as forecast, then Maryland voters may well decide their judgment was correct. **Read more about this issue:** The Post’s View: Vote for Maryland’s Question 7 The Post’s View: High stakes in Maryland The Post’s View: A casino-for-hospital deal is a sucker bet

Maryland Live takes in at least $50 million in gross gaming revenue for sixth-straight month

Another month, another $50 million haul for Maryland Live. The massive casino in Anne Arundel County raked in $51.8 million in gross gambling revenue in October, the sixth consecutive month that it has cleared at least $50 million on its slot machines and table games. The total included $2.3 million from Maryland Live’s 14,800-square-foot poker room, one of the busiest card rooms in the country since its opening in late August. Collectively, the state’s four casinos collected more than $66 million in October, according to Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency figures. Excluding Rocky Gap Casino, the modest Western Maryland resort that opened in May, year-over-year casino revenue in the state was up nearly 60 percent, or $23.3 million, for the month. Most of the increase came from live-action table games, which were approved last year by voters as part of a dramatic expansion of gaming in Maryland. Gross gambling revenue — the amount collected from slot machines and table games before the casinos pay taxes, interest and other expenses — was up by more than 20 percent at both Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County and the Casino at Ocean Downs on the Eastern Shore. At Maryland Live — by far, the state’s largest casino, with more than 4,300 slot machines and 174 tables, including poker — the year-over-year growth was nearly 70 percent, or $21.1 million. And executives there said they think there’s more growth potential: The casino, at the Arundel Mills mall, recently received clearance from state regulators to remove 71 slot machines to make way for a new, 24-hour Asian restaurant near the baccarat pit and high-limit tables. Putting the restaurant close to “higher revenue producing players” would drive “both gaming and non-gaming revenues,” Maryland Live’s president and general manager. Rob Norton, wrote in a letter to the state. The as-yet-unnamed restaurant — complete with a show kitchen — will replace the casino’s undersized, overtaxed Noodles eatery and is expected to be completed by spring. Slot revenue at Maryland Live and Hollywood Casino Perryville is taxed at 67 percent. Rocky Gap and the Casino at Ocean Downs pay lower rates (50 percent and 43 percent, respectively). Hollywood, Maryland Live and Rocky Gap send 20 percent of table-game revenue to the state; Ocean Downs hopes to add table games in 2014.

Steven Pearlstein: And now, in local news . . .

I suspect Gov. Martin O’Malley spoke for most Marylanders last week when he explained why he was backing legislation to expand casino gambling in the state — for more than a decade, a divisive political issue that just wouldn’t go away. “For crying out loud, aren’t we all tired of this by now?” asked the governor. I enjoy the occasional evening at the blackjack table more than most, but over the years I’ve developed a healthy skepticism when the gaming industry or politicians argue that gambling would be a big new source of revenue for the state, or that it would spur economic development or — in the case of Maryland — that it would save the horse-racing industry. The reality rarely lives up to the promise. For starters, the revenue and economic projections done by the same handful of “independent” consultants routinely used by the industry invariably ignore the possibility that new competition will come on line, dividing a limited market even further and ensuring that nobody makes money. Anyone who doubts the industry’s tendency toward over-optimism and over-capacity need only look to the sorry case of Atlantic City or the reliable flood of bankruptcy filings by casino properties and operators any time the economy takes a downturn. The studies also ignore that the money people spend (lose) on gambling isn’t spent or invested in some other way that would also generate sales or income tax revenue for the state. As in the case of Maryland, the assumption is often that the new revenue will come either from people in adjoining states or from Marylanders who are now going elsewhere to gamble. So Maryland increases the number of casinos, encouraging Delaware and Pennsylvania to do the same, forcing Maryland to up the ante even more. And it is precisely such a casino arms race that the gambling industry is thrilled to instigate. Another rationale for this year’s legislation is that it will help provide a needed boost to the struggling development at National Harbor in Prince George’s County, which is expected to win the competition for the new license. A new casino/hotel, on the northern edge of the property next to the Beltway, will be operated by MGM Grand. I’m a big fan of National Harbor and its developer, Milt Peterson. Over the years, I also have admired Peterson for resisting entreaties from state and county politicians to include a casino as part of the project. These days, however, it’s no secret in the real estate world that National Harbor isn’t exactly performing according to expectations. Long delays caused by the county’s permitting process meant that by the time the project finally came on line, the real estate bubble had burst and Peterson had missed the top of the cycle. A long-planned investment by Disney in a theme park fell through, while new requirements put in by the Obama administration for Metro access to government offices dashed any hopes that National Harbor could pick up federal tenants. Given that history, it’s hardly surprising that Peterson, who has personally invested hundreds of millions of dollars in National Harbor, has now agreed to include a casino hotel in the project. The danger, it seems to me, is that once the novelty wears off and revenues and attendance begin to wane, the casino won’t add much to the overall success of the development. I seriously doubt those seniors bused in from Richmond for an exciting day playing the slot machines will be taking river cruises or spending their winnings at National Harbor’s restaurants and shops. Nor do I imagine there will be large numbers of high rollers from Dallas and Dubai flying in for a few days of high-stakes Poker on the Potomac. The potential really comes from Washington’s convention and meeting visitors — the tourist crowd is too family-oriented — along with Washington’s well-heeled locals on an evening out. But that’s a more limited audience than Peterson is counting on, as well as one that would respond better to a high-toned facility featuring table games and nightclub entertainment than row upon row of noisy, flashing slot machines. As it turns out, National Harbor’s strongest draw may be as a residential development for empty-nesters and childless couples who appreciate the waterfront ambience, the walkable village feel and the proximity to the District and the Beltway — many of the same attributes that have made Old Town Alexandria so sought-after and successful. The townhouses at National Harbor quickly sold out. Going forward, Peterson’s challenge will be to ensure that the presence of casino gambling — or for that matter, any of its tourist components — do not overwhelm the project to the point that they undermine the potential for a vibrant community in which Washingtonians live and work. We know gambling can work economically in destination resorts given over to gambling (Las Vegas, yes, but alas not Atlantic City). Or it can work on Indian reservations that are far away from other casinos but close enough to urban areas. There are precious few examples of casinos anchoring, or even co-existing with, successful mixed-used developments. *** As a recent regular (reverse) commuter on Interstate-66, I have developed a newfound appreciation for the inconvenience and economic damage that the transportation nazis in Arlington have imposed on the rest of the region. For two decades these zealots have successfully blocked any highway construction in the county that might result in even one additional single-occupancy vehicle on the road. Even the investment of billions of dollars in the extension of Metro along the Dulles corridor has not shaken their self-righteous determination to impose their values and force every last one of us to move closer to where we work or abandon our single-occupancy vehicles in favor of buses, carpools and bicycles. One of their favorite tactics is to file a lawsuit to prevent even a shovel of earth to be turned unless a full-blown environmental impact study has been done, knowing that the study will significantly delay any project, increase its costs and provide the basis for further lawsuits alleging that said study was faulty and must be done over. This tactic comes straight out of the NIMBY handbook. And it was just such a suit that forced Virginia to abandon plans for an additional toll lane on Interstate-95 on the heavily-traveled segment between the Beltway and the Pentagon. Last month, however, in passing the new highway reauthorization bill, Congress included a provision directing the secretary of transportation to provide a categorical exclusion from the environmental impact review for any highway project that is done within an existing right-of-way. That would surely include the disputed segment of I-95 and possibly even I-66 through its many Arlington bottlenecks. Sean Connaughton, the state’s transportation secretary, warned against getting too excited by the new provision. “Given so many worthwhile non-Arlington projects in Northern Virginia, we are using our limited resources to fund them,” he told me in an e-mail. Translation: Even for Republicans, life’s too short to spend it fighting the Arlington zealots. ****

Maryland Live Casino set to debut blackjack, craps, other table games in April

Let the double downs begin. Maryland Live Casino will begin offering live blackjack, craps, roulette and other table games April 11, marking a milestone in the state’s dramatic expansion of casino gambling. The suburban slots hall — one of the largest commercial casinos in the country and by far the biggest in the Free State — will add 122 live-action tables, with dealers, dice, cards, chips and security cameras. A smaller gambling venue, Hollywood Casino Perryville, plans to introduce table games March 7, pending one final greenlight from the General Assembly, casino spokeswoman Jennifer Miglionico said. The casino, which sits along I-95 between Baltimore and Wilmington, Del., will have a dozen live games plus an eight-table poker area. Maryland Live’s date was announced Tuesday, although casino officials said it is “pending final regulatory approval.” “The addition of live-action table games completes the world-class gaming and entertainment experience we have created at Maryland Live Casino,” Rob Norton, the property’s president and general manager, said in a statement. Table games were approved by Maryland voters in November, along with a sixth casino in Prince George’s County. As part of the gambling-expansion referendum, the state’s casinos are allowed to operate round-the-clock; Maryland Live hasn’t closed its doors since Dec. 27. Even without live-action table games, Maryland Live has been doing booming business since it opened June 6, pulling in an average of $1.1 million a day in gambling revenue, according to the state Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. Employees at the 160,000-square-foot casino at Arundel Mills mall in Hanover have been removing some of its 4,750 slot machines (the number will shrink to 4,332), tearing up carpets and reworking its wiring ahead of the table-games operation. “Pardon our dust, we’re making room for winners!” says a sign near an indoor construction zone. “Get ready for a full house!” another announces, although traditional poker tables won’t be included initially. The casino will offer Pai Gow, Three Card Poker, Mississippi Stud and other “carnival-style” variations of the game come April; casino officials plan to build a 50-table, split-level poker room in the summer. But the opening bet is on craps, blackjack and the carnival games, which will be offered at varying stakes. (The casino has some chips worth $10,000 each on order.) The new games will probably generate as much excitement as revenue for the casino, whose table games vice president Neal Sloane recently cited an industry aphorism: “Tables are for show, slots are for dough.” That’s not necessarily true at the high-limit tables on the Las Vegas Strip, where casinos cultivate big-money bettors who might play for $50,000 a hand. But in Pennsylvania, the market that analysts say is probably most comparable to Maryland, table games accounted for about 22 percent of gross casino gaming revenue last year, according to the state’s Gaming Control Board. Slots produced the rest. At Maryland Live, preparations for table games have been underway for months. Since Jan. 7, the casino and Anne Arundel Community College have been operating a dealer school at Marley Station mall in Glen Burnie, where about 800 gambling greenhorns are being trained as dealers. The casino plans to hire more than 500 first-timers, along with more than 200 experienced dealers from other states.

Maryland General Assembly passes legislation for Prince George’s casino

The Maryland General Assembly passed legislation early Wednesday morning that would allow a Las Vegas-style casino in Prince George’s County, sending the controversial measure to Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) for his promised signature. The bill would also allow table games, such as blackjack and roulette, at the state’s approved slots locations — transforming Maryland in a few short years into one of the most concentrated casino markets outside Las Vegas. Voters would get the final say in November on whether the plan goes forward, following what is expected to be a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign. The measure cleared the House 71 to 58 — the bare minimum required for passage — at about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday. About half an hour later, the Senate, which approved a similar bill last week, signed off on the House changes by a vote of 32 to 14. That brought to an end a special session called by O’Malley, who is expected to hold a bill-signing ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Boosters of the plan, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), have touted the promise of thousands of new jobs and tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue flowing to the state and host counties. “In the end, we will have a healthy, competitive marketplace,” House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery) told his colleagues toward the end of a floor debate that stretched over more than seven hours. Opponents have warned that Maryland risks an oversaturated gambling market in which some of its emerging, large-scale casinos are destined to fail. The plan attempts to compensate owners of other casinos for the new competition by letting them keep a larger share of slots proceeds than under current law. That prompted some lawmakers to question why the legislature was giving casino owners a break after passing a series of tax hikes in recent years, including an income tax increase on six-figure earners this spring. “I think that’s disgraceful,” said Del. Herbert H. McMillan (R-Anne Arundel). “If cutting taxes for casinos is great policy, then why aren’t we doing it for everyone else?” By the time a Prince George’s venue is supposed to open, in mid-2016, motorists traveling along a 44-mile stretch of Route 295 would have three large casinos to choose among, each with more slot machines than any single casino on the Vegas Strip. A gambling venue at National Harbor, the most likely site of a Prince George’s casino, would be among the first things people see upon crossing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Maryland. MGM Resorts has been lined up as the operator. The state’s largest venue, Maryland Live!, which opened in June at an outlet mall in Anne Arundel County, raked in $35 million in revenue last month. Caesars Entertainment has been given the go-ahead to build another venue scheduled to open in downtown Baltimore in 2014. And three other smaller facilities are open or in the works elsewhere in the state. The plan, which was proposed by O’Malley, would be the largest expansion of gambling in Maryland since voters authorized five slots locations in 2008. Legislative analysts estimate that the expansion plan would net the state about $200 million a year in gambling revenue once a Prince George’s facility opens in mid-2016. Most of that — about $130 million — is unrelated to the Prince George’s facility, however. That figure would drop by about $32 million under the House plan compared with the Senate bill. In what appeared to be a bid to pick up additional votes for the underlying bill, the House agreed to an amendment Tuesday that could significantly expand the number of veterans organizations allowed to offer up to five lottery devices that are similar in appearance to slot machines. The provision, which has long been a priority for VFW halls and American Legion posts, was approved on a voice vote after some testy debate. Some counties, including Montgomery, were not included in the amendment at the insistence of local lawmakers. Prince George’s is among those included. O’Malley’s gambling plan will be on the ballot statewide in November, but Prince George’s is certain to be the epicenter of an expected multimillion-dollar ad campaign. That’s because a provision in the bill only allows a casino to move forward in Prince George’s if a majority of county voters support the measure, regardless of the statewide tally. Given that dynamic, the ideal outcome for some gaming companies operating in Maryland would be for the measure to carry statewide but fail in Prince George’s. That way, the operators would get table games but wouldn’t face additional competition from a site better situated to draw patrons from the District and Virginia. The bill’s passage also underscored the clout O’Malley retains in Annapolis. As his national political travels have increased in recent months, so too has grumbling among lawmakers that he is more interested in positioning himself for national office than tending to matters back home. A few high-profile O’Malley initiatives fell short in the regular session — including a transportation plan that went nowhere — and the governor shared some of the blame for a final-night debacle that brought down both a major tax bill and gambling proposal. Weeks later, O’Malley announced a pair of special sessions to mop up work on those two issues, pressing forward on gambling despite a lack of enthusiasm from House members. O’Malley himself had dismissed an expanded gambling proposal during the regular session as a distraction, and as recently as last week, he proclaimed that he was “so sick” of the issue that he just wanted to put it behind him. Nevertheless, O’Malley developed a new proposal and prodded delegates to accept a long-standing priority for the Senate president. The bill would invite bids for a Prince George’s site from a swath of the county that includes both National Harbor and Rosecroft. Baker has championed a site at National Harbor, the 300-acre mini-city on the Potomac River, drawing protest from Penn National Gaming, the owner of Rosecroft, a horse track in Fort Washington. As envisioned, a casino at National Harbor would sit atop a wind-whipped hill just to the east of the heart of the development. Penn has pledged it would build a new, state-of-the art facility at Rosecroft. Even though it would be eligible for a Prince George’s license, Penn has called the process in Maryland “sleazy,” and signaled that the company is willing to pour millions into efforts to defeat the referendum. Penn also has an out-of-state interest to protect. It is the owner of a full-fledged casino in Charles Town, W.Va., that stands to lose more of its Maryland customer base if a facility pops up in Prince George’s. Aaron C. Davis contributed to this report.

Gambling’s spreading tentacles in Maryland

GOV. MARTIN O’MALLEY (D), tipping his hat to Maryland’s good-government crowd, included what sounds like a stern ban on campaign contributions by the gambling industry in his bill to expand gambling in the state. In the real world there’s very little the state can do to limit the clout of big casino operators, whose influence is already at work in state politics, in local governments and on the airwaves. That clout is on vivid display this week in Annapolis as state lawmakers, in many cases disrupting their summer vacations, were summoned for a special legislative session on gaming. More than a few of them have observed that it’s hard to imagine any other industry with the muscle to force such a meeting; in fact the debate in Annapolis seems largely a fight between competing squadrons of well-heeled lobbyists. Notwithstanding the lofty rhetoric about job creation, it can be hard to discern the public interest in such an environment. Mindful that the state has started to seem a captive of gambling interests, Mr. O’Malley’s draft legislation includes language banning contributions from them to state candidates, campaign committees or political parties. This is meant to insulate Maryland’s office-holders and political campaigns from the corrosive power of MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and the industry’s other power players. One problem is that the ban singles out a single industry for what looks like discriminatory treatment; that may not pass constitutional muster. If Maryland prohibits contributions from gambling interests, why do alcohol companies get a pass, or utilities, or any other regulated industry? Even if constitutional, the ban probably will not cramp big gaming companies, which explains their silence on the matter. While the bill would ban contributions to political parties, candidates and campaign committees, it would not, and cannot, stop corporations from spending independently to influence public debates and elections. One particularly easy way to skirt the measure, if it becomes law, is for gambling concerns to give money to nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations, which cannot be forced to reveal their funding sources. That exemption has been at work in recent weeks in competing volleys of television ads in the Baltimore market, some urging the expansion of gambling in Maryland, some condemning it. According to the Baltimore Sun, the two sides have spent more than $1 million in recent weeks on the ads. But it’s unclear who is paying precisely how much for the ads. Given the gambling industry’s deep pockets, it’s unsurprising that the main debate over the governor’s bill has focused on how much to cut taxes for existing casinos in order to protect them from the additional competition posed by introducing a new casino in Prince George’s County. The governor and state Senate favored cuts up to about 17 percent. The House, which had previously fretted about cutting taxes for gambling titans after raising them this year for ordinary Marylanders, suddenly favored tax cuts reaching up to 25 percent. It’s a little late to be worrying about limiting the political influence of one very rich industry in the state. On that count, the cards have already been dealt. **Read more from Opinions:** The Post’s View: Betting on more gambling revenue, less gambling politics The Post’s View: Does Maryland really want to be a pioneer on Internet gambling? Heather Mizeur: More gambling isn’t the answer for Maryland’s economy

Anne Arundel awards gambling-tax grants

The Anne Arundel County Fire Department hit the jackpot on Wednesday, receiving a $7 million gambling-tax grant from Maryland Live Casino and Anne Arundel County. The casino and the county awarded a total of $20 million in local impact grants for the new fiscal year, with the Anne Arundel County Police Department ($2 million), Meade High School ($3 million) and Anne Arundel Community College ($3.7 million) among the other big winners. The community college helped Maryland Live launch a temporary casino dealer school in January and now teaches the trade at its Arundel Mills campus, a half-mile from the casino. Anne Arundel receives 5.5 percent of slots revenue from state's largest casino and is tasked with determining distribution. For fiscal year 2013, which ended June 30, Maryland Live collected $431 million in gross slots revenue; the county's share was just over $23.7 million.

Md. House Speaker floats possible tax cut when General Assembly returns next year

The curtain closed just a week ago on this year’s session of the Maryland General Assembly, but House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) is already thinking about something he would like to do next year. And it might surprise you: cut taxes. “I’m an optimist, and I believe the economy is going to improve,” Busch said in an interview on Monday. “If there’s an increase in revenues that results, hopefully we can return some of that to the taxpayers.” Busch, who helped usher a major gas tax increase through his chamber this year, declined to discuss which taxes he might seek to reduce next year. He allowed only that the relief should be targeted to “working and middle-class families, who have borne the brunt of the recession.” “It could take many forms,” Busch said. Republicans told of Busch’s intention said it sounds like an election-year ploy. Lawmakers have passed a series of tax increases since Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) took office in 2007, including hikes in the sales tax and income tax on high earners. All 188 members of the Democrat-led General Assembly will be up for re-election next year. “Give me a break,” said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Calvert). “It’s disingenuous to raise taxes for three years and act like you want to cut them when an election year rolls around.” David Ferguson, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party, offered another explanation, noting it was April 15: “This being tax day, maybe he was reminded of the outrageous amount of taxes he pays to the state,” Ferguson said. After years of tight budgets, Busch said the state is poised for better fiscal years ahead. Besides an improving economy, he cited the planned opening of two major casinos in Maryland: one in Baltimore in 2014, and another in Prince George’s in 2016. Those facilities are projected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year for state education programs. Three other casinos are already operating in Maryland, and a fourth, in the western part of the state, is planned to begin operations this year.

Las Vegas on the Potomac

THE PROPOSAL to builda $1 billion casino barely a mile south of the District in Prince George’s County — a project tantamount to Las Vegas on the Potomac — is a grandiose grab for easy money. It is the latest symptom of gaming fever gone wild in Maryland, which, having trumpeted the supposed benefits of slot machine parlors only to discover they were badly hyped, is now flirting with the idea of doubling down with a headlong rush into the casino business. It shouldn’t. The mega-casino, which would be located at National Harbor, the flashy new development near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, is the brainchild of Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III. Mr. Baker, a year into his term, has done a lot to burnish the image of his county after years of graft in high places. But while he is understandably eager to jump-start economic development, a casino on the scale of the Bellagio is not the way to do it. Mr. Baker’s proposed casino would be one of the biggest gambling venues in the nation outside of Las Vegas or Atlantic City. In his vision, it would be unabashedly upscale — probably prohibitively so for the vast majority of middle-class Prince George’s residents. In fact, that may be part of the appeal to Mr. Baker, a longtime opponent of slots parlors whose sudden embrace of gambling represents an about-face. Rather than preying on locals who can ill afford the slots and table games at a run-of-the-mill casino, he’d prefer a high-end facility to attract out-of-town conventioneers and well-heeled customers from Virginia and the District. At the same time, Prince George’s officials propose a tax regime for the casino that they say would spin off $50 million annually for the county to help revive foreclosure-struck neighborhoods, promote developments around Metro stations and funnel to local nonprofits. County officials say that the casino would bring several thousand decent jobs. Mr. Baker prefers a glitzy gambling mecca at National Harbor to a lesser facility at Rosecroft Raceway, a few miles farther south, whose owners, Penn National Gaming, have been pressing for a casino. He says that if lawmakers in Annapolis don’t adopt his vision — which they’re not likely to, at least this year — he will oppose legislation that would result in a casino at Rosecroft. The trouble is that gambling is gambling — a poor catalyst for economic development no matter how many bells and whistles come attached to it. Any sizable casino in Prince George’s would rebrand the county, and not for the better. At the very moment that Prince George’s is hoping to attract the FBI’s new national headquarters and to lure major private-sector employers, building a big casino seems like a damaging diversion. To his credit, Mr. Baker has rejected the idea, pushed by the state Senate president, Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), that gambling revenue is the only way to pay for a new hospital in Prince George’s, which the county badly needs. But in a way he is now advocating something worse — a casino not simply as an unpleasant means to a worthy end but for its own sake. Surely Prince George’s, with its proximity to the nation’s capital, its well-educated residents and its abundance of land available for development, can do better. **For more on this topic from The Post** News story: Slots site in Prince George’s faces tough road to passage Blog: Baker asks Prince George’s delegates to consider gaming News story: Maryland looks to ease opposition to slots in Prince George’s Blog: Casino plan prompts concerns.

Md. casinos resist bid to raise taxes

Shortsighted, and a step in the wrong direction. That’s how the gambling industry is characterizing an effort by some Maryland state legislators to raise taxes on casino revenue in the state. A proposal last month by 21 state senators to exceed previously agreed-upon tax rates has upset casino owners and industry lobbyists. Casinos pay 67 percent tax on revenue from slot machines and 20 percent on revenue from table games. A bill sponsored by Senate Democrats would increase the state’s tax on table games to 30 percent; the tax rate on slots would remain the same. Both rates are among the highest in the 23 U.S. states with commercial casinos. **** In January, two Maryland casinos,Maryland Live and the new Horseshoe Baltimore, were given approval by the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Commission to replace hundreds of slot machines with table games. A month earlier, the commission approved a request by Hollywood Casino in Perryville to dump 308 slot machines. The casinos say the shift is a necessary response to consumer demand as fewer players head to slot machines and more want to gamble at table games such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat. But some legislators see the move as a way for the casinos to pocket more revenue and avoid the higher tax rate on slot machines. The bill, introduced by Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Baltimore) and co-sponsored by 20 senators, is awaiting a vote in the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. “I love that bill. I love it, I love it,” Conway said in a phone interview. “If they vote it, will it get out of committee? I think it will. I don’t know one senator who is opposed to the bill.” Conway says she introduced the bill because she’s worried that as the casinos dump slot machines and add table games, the difference in the tax rates will limit the revenue for the state, the vast majority of which is directed to the state’s Education Trust Fund. Slots produced $578 million in tax revenue for Maryland in fiscal 2014. Table games earned $255 million for the state that year. Conway’s bill immediately drew attention from the casino industry, which pushed back with force against the proposed hike and testified against it in committee hearings. “We’ve been working really hard to ensure that the legislators have all of the facts about what a 50 percent increase on the tax on table games would mean to the industry and what it would mean to the state and how it would negatively impact the revenues that would be returned,” said Sara Rayme, a spokeswoman for the American Gaming Association, a casino lobbying group. Casino operators see the proposed legislation as a move that would make Maryland less competitive and less attractive for additional investment, particularly in comparison with other states in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, Rayme said. Many in the casino industry already think that the Maryland tax rates are too high and that the industry is overregulated in the state. That argument doesn’t win much sympathy from Conway. “If you think we’re overregulated, if you think the taxes are too high, you were very cognizant of that when you were busy bidding for casinos in the state of Maryland and you wanted to be here,” she said, answering casino owners’ concerns. “And with all that said, you’re still making money.” Since casinos began operating in Maryland in 2010, they have taken in approximately $2.4 billion in revenue and have contributed approximately $1 billion to Maryland’s Education Trust Fund. Whether Conway’s bill is brought up for a vote is undecided, but Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer (D-Baltimore and Howard counties), who heads the Senate tax and budget committee, expressed caution. “You don’t want to be making a decision willy-nilly,” he said in a phone interview. “Whatever’s done will need a lot of homework and preparation so that everyone is well aware of all the facts and figures before you make a decision. It may be an issue to really put in some comprehensive study, maybe after National Harbor opens, to see how the numbers look.” The $925 million MGM National Harbor casino, the state’s sixth casino, is scheduled to open next year in Prince George’s County. Waiting until the MGM casino opens before changing the tax rate is favored by Del. Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery County), the House chairman of the Joint Committee on Gaming Oversight. “Certainly after all the casinos are online and we have a better idea of what the market looks like in the state, then we’ll have a better idea of what the appropriate tax rates are,” he said. “The casinos are going to advocate for their own interests, but it’s our job to consider the state interest. I expect it to be an ongoing conversation.”

With the Horseshoe casino, Baltimore adds to the urban gambling jackpot

The inside of the new Horseshoe casino looks like any gambling palace on the Las Vegas Strip, filled with blinking slot machines, blackjack tables, cocktail waitresses and crystal chandeliers. But one glimpse of the Royal Farms convenience store across the street is enough to remind you: This is not the Bellagio. This is Baltimore. The owner, Caesars Entertainment, wouldn’t have it any other way. The company is one of many developers that have vied to open casinos in places such as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Cleveland — cities that other industries abandoned decades ago. Post-industrial cities are casino gambling’s newest frontier. __ Located mainly in the Midwest and Northeast, they were off-limits to Vegas-style gambling until their states began embracing casinos as a source of tax revenue and jobs. Maryland, which didn’t open its first slots parlor until 2010, is now one of the fastest-growing casino markets in the country — and one with an increasingly urban focus. The largest of its four casinos, Maryland Live, is just 12 miles south of downtown Baltimore. On Tuesday, a fifth, the $442 million Horseshoe casino, is scheduled to open in the Inner Harbor amid expectations that it will turn gambling in the Free State into a billion- dollar-a-year industry. And at the other end of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, MGM Resorts International has begun work on a $950 million gambling complex at National Harbor that is expected to open in 2016. A decade ago, no one would have imagined that Maryland would become a gambling mecca, siphoning bettors away from neighboring states and Atlantic City, where as many as four casinos could be shuttered by the end of the summer. For years, much of the opposition to casino gambling centered on its potentially harmful effects on Baltimore, a city of 622,000, where a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. “We don’t need to put 4,500 slot machines in the middle of a community trying to right itself,” Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) once argued, before the lure of millions in gambling revenue and thousands of new casino jobs drained away the state’s resistance. Now, Horseshoe is bringing slot machines, blackjack, craps and poker within a few miles of thousands of low-income residents, most of whom can’t afford to gamble but might do so anyway. Gambling addiction experts contend that proximity matters. A 2004 national study found that living within 10 miles of a casino is associated with a 90 percent increase in the odds that a person will become a problem gambler. The casino has generated 2,000 construction jobs and 1,700 permanent paychecks for dealers, bartenders, cashiers, security guards and janitors in a city where the unemployment rate is almost 10 percent. And the mayor has plans for millions in gambling revenue, promising to reduce property taxes and pump money into school buildings and recreation centers. It will be a while before the social costs and economic benefits are clear. But one thing is certain, said state Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George’s): “The bottom line is the house always wins.” Casino developers have always wanted to be in cities, said Kahlil Philander, director of research at the International Gaming Institute of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. But “we have not seen it more before because they didn’t have the opportunity,” he said. After Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988, Native American tribes were able to build casinos under state compacts, but only on land they controlled, which was mostly far from major cities. Gamblers got used to schlepping to rural towns and making the occasional pilgrimage to Las Vegas, Atlantic City or riverboat casinos along the Mississippi. Detroit was a notable exception. In the 1990s, after witnessing the success of a casino in nearby Windsor, Canada, city officials looked to casinos to generate desperately needed jobs and revenue. The first of three opened in 1999, although being ranked as the country’s fourth-largest gambling market did not help the city stave off bankruptcy last year. Detroit was the beginning of an urban casino gold rush, as chronic budget shortfalls and shrinking tax rolls eroded public resistance to legalized gambling. Once states began to give in, their neighbors felt pressure to follow suit or lose potential tax revenue to other states. “I call it, ‘Only in my back yard,’ ’’ said Jacob Miklojcik, a Lansing, Mich., marketing consultant who works with casino developers. “The idea is to block other states from getting” that money. By 2013, 23 states had state-regulated casinos, more than twice the number a decade earlier, according to the American Gaming Association. When Indian gamblingestablishments are included, 40 states now have legalized gambling. Gambling companies, which spent millions lobbying for legalization, touted casinos as catalysts for urban revitalization in overlooked areas such as the gritty stretch of Russell Street where Horseshoe Baltimore is located, or the former department store in downtown Cleveland, where Rock Gaming and Caesars opened another Horseshoe casino in 2012. More than 4 million gamblers flocked there in its first year. “We think we can be a part of a transformation within the city of Cleveland,” Matthew Cullen, chief executive of Rock Gaming, told Crain’s Cleveland Business. Ultimately, he said, the impact of the casino in Cleveland will be judged by the city’s own success.   The impact on the casino’s bottom line is easier to discern. It shrinks the distance between the gambling halls and their customers. And in the new world of localized gambling, convenience is king. Instead of trying to get someone to take a six-hour flight to stay at the Wynn in Las Vegas a few times a year, “you have a customer who comes for a shorter time more frequently,” said Wendy Hamilton, general manager of the four-year-old SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia. “It is not different in the total amount of time. It’s the nature of that time. It’s after the end of a shift, and I have one hour before I need to meet my kids.” In Philadelphia, enough people have been willing to squeeze in a trip to SugarHouse to make it one of the top attractions in the city, with about 2 million annual visitors. But being in the middle of a major metropolitan area is no guarantee of a flood of gamblers. Slot revenue in Pennsylvania is down for a second year, state data show, partly because of increased competition from Ohio and Maryland. As a result, SugarHouse executives have been trying to persuade state gambling control officials not to award a second casino license in Philadelphia. “The false premise is that somehow or other there is this tribe of gamers lost in the Mid-Atlantic states that no one has found and no one has brought in to game anywhere,” said Neil Bluhm, chair of HSP Gaming, the owner of SugarHouse, at a January hearing. “There is no lost tribe of gamers out there.” In Maryland, casino operators and regulators are already bracing for some cannibalization of gambling revenue from the state’s existing four casinos when Horseshoe opens. Just as Live’s success has come at the expense of the casinos in West Virginia and Delaware, Horseshoe is expected to take business away from Live, a state-commissioned study projected. Another state-backed study estimated that Live could lose as much as $90 million, or 18 percent of its annual revenue, once MGM National Harbor opens in 2016. Miklojcik, the consultant, said that given the region’s population size and affluence, all the casinos should all be able to survive, provided they are well-managed and have not taken on too much debt. All of that is academic at the moment to Horseshoe’s hundreds of workers, who have their eyes trained on one thing — opening day. On a recent afternoon, freshly trained card dealers were practicing on their colleagues. Another set of employees tried to stay pumped by shouting, “What time is it? Cage time!” Everything inside has been carefully laid out, casino executives said, including the expanse of windows along “the marketplace,” where gamblers will soon be able to sample food from well-known local eateries. There are brick walls and street lamps. Windows by the escalators offer a view of traffic whizzing by on Route 295. The effect is intentional, Horseshoe general manager Chad Barnhill said. “Wherever you walk in,” he said, “we want you to see Baltimore.”

Has the bet on casino gambling in Baltimore been a bust?

There were great expectations for Horseshoe Casino when it opened in Baltimore last August. Crowds surged, music blasted, festivity reigned. Big-dollar optimism was in full force as well, as casino industry consultants hired by the state predicted monthly gambling revenue in the $28 million range for Maryland’s fifth gambling destination. A year later, industry watchers are dialing down the enthusiasm. Horseshoe is trying to find its footing in one of the most concentrated casino markets in the country. It hasn’t been easy — and there will be even more competition when MGM National Harbor opens its much-anticipated $1.3 billion casino and resort on the banks of the Potomac River next year. Horseshoe is a smaller gambling palace. Monthly revenue is averaging just over $23 million at the $442 million casino. If it maintains its monthly average rate, Horseshoe will pull in about $60 million less than projected in its first year of operation. And for Maryland, that means about $20.4 million less in tax revenue for the state’s Education Trust Fund. So, what’s going on? Industry experts say that the projections for Horseshoe were overly optimistic and didn’t fully take into account how saturated Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic had become with gambling options. It didn’t help that one of Horseshoe’s primary owners, Caesars Entertainment, was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy of its casino operations, which it did in January. And when riots broke out in Baltimore in mid-April, the ensuing curfew curtailed operations at the 24-hour facility for a week and ate into revenue and momentum. For their part, Horseshoe executives reject the notion that the casino is underperforming, saying that the early projections by others were not in keeping with their own. They point to the 5 million customers who have walked through the door since its opening and the hiring of 1,900 employees, 60 percent of whom are Baltimore residents, as signs of a vibrant first year. “Our revenues are strong for a market of this size, and they continue trending in a positive direction following the unrest that we experienced in the spring,” says Chad Barnhill, Horseshoe’s senior vice president and general manager. “There’s no question that our performance is improving in the wake of the city’s challenges, and I expect that to continue to do so.” Not everyone agrees. And some critics say that Horseshoe’s location not far from the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium gets in the way of a better performance. “The biggest reason, in my opinion, is that city casinos do not do as well as people think, especially when there are choices outside the city,” says Alan Woinski, president of Gaming USA and the author of syndicated newsletters on the gambling industry. “Casinos in New Orleans, Cincinnati, Cleveland all have underperformed. . . . It is not a coincidence that no city casinos have met projections.” _ _Horseshoe has to go up against Maryland Live, the three-year-old casino next to the Arundel Mills Mall just 12 miles south of Baltimore. The state’s largest casino, Maryland Live did better than analysts expected in meeting the challenge from Horseshoe and even exceeding revenue expectations. It has been averaging more than $50 million a month this year, or double the gross gaming revenue of its neighbor up the road. “When [Horseshoe] Baltimore opened up, everyone thought that Maryland Live, given that it was no longer the shiny penny, would lose a little bit of that luster, and we really haven’t seen it,” says Chad Beynon, a gaming industry analyst with Macquarie Securities. (A separate part of Macquarie Securities has helped Caesars secure financing while in bankruptcy.) “The old adage or thinking is that people who live in the suburbs like to stay in the suburbs. And they traditionally don’t go into the city because it’s a dark, scary place.” Horseshoe’s Barnhill acknowledges that the riots had an impact but points out that in July the casino experienced its second-best revenue month — $24.4 million — since opening and its best month since March. “The disturbance that happened earlier this year, I hope that is not something that keeps people from coming downtown to this great city and all that this great city has to offer,” Barnhill says. “I’m sure it’s in the back of some people’s minds, but Baltimore is on a great track in terms of making sure that we’re doing everything we can as a city and obviously as a property to get people comfortable in coming back downtown.” Horseshoe can’t afford to look back. Looming on the horizon for Horseshoe and Maryland Live: the scheduled opening of MGM, which is expected to draw gamblers from Maryland and Northern Virginia as well as nationally. Maryland Live is clearly gearing up for the challenge. On Tuesday, it announced plans for an 18-story hotel and convention center. Barnhill says that Horseshoe also has plans for growth and development that “we continue to take a good, hard look at.” “There’s a wide variety of options,” he says. “And fortunately for us, there’s a wide variety of land parcels around us that we can discuss with the city as well.” In the expectations game, Horseshoe will really begin feeling the pressure in its second year as the initial monthly gambling revenue projections by the consultants to Maryland’s State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency jump to $35 million a month. Analysts, too, expect to see a better showing. “We’d like to see that $20 to $25 million gross gaming number get above 30,” says Beynon of Macquarie Securities. “Once you’re above those levels, given the numbers of employees you have to employ and the overall tax structure and operating expense environment, I think that’s enough to keep the property afloat and operate at a pretty healthy state. But once you’re in the 20s, from a gross gaming standpoint with a tax rate that high, that’s where it becomes a little more difficult for the operator to make a profit.” Whether Horseshoe can get there is an open question, but Barnhill is optimistic. “Whether we start off in January at $35 million, or we’re able to get there later on throughout the course of the year,” he says, “I feel very positive about our continued growth in that direction.” Maryland is an interested party in Horseshoe’s progress as 34 percent on average of gross gambling revenue at the state’s casinos goes to the Education Trust Fund. But Horseshoe’s performance so far is not yet a cause for great concern, says Del. Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery). “We know that projections are always going to be a little bit off, and in our budget process, we account for some variability,” says Luedtke, the House chairman of the Joint Committee on Gaming Oversight. “From the state’s perspective, we’re less concerned about how one casino is doing than on how the entire casino and lottery program is doing together. From that perspective, the state’s doing pretty well.” Still, there is concern from industry watchers about Horseshoe. And for now, all eyes are on Baltimore to see if the young casino can shake off its sluggish first-year showing. **Read more:** House of Cards: Seven guys in a poker crash pad play Texas hold’em for a living. From spelling bee champ to professional poker player Swelter for hours in line to eat at the acclaimed Rose’s Luxury? People do it every day. Lawyers offered to pay this street band to stop playing. It said ‘no.’

Gov. Martin O’Malley aims to finally put gambling issue behind him

Gov. Martin O’Malley argued Wednesday that his gambling expansion plan would create jobs and more revenue for Maryland — but said he mainly wants it passed because he is “so sick of this.” “This is not so much about what we want as what we need to get behind us,” O’Malley (D) told reporters. “I don’t know a single member of the General Assembly who ran for office wanting to deal with the issue of gaming year in and year out. For crying out loud, aren’t we all tired of this by now?” O’Malley’s comments came on the eve of a special legislative session he has called to consider a new casino in Prince George’s County, as well as Las Vegas-style table games, such as blackjack and roulette, at Maryland’s five designated slots locations. Voters also would have to sign off on the expansion in November. O’Malley said he hopes this is the last time he has to deal with the issue in the remaining two years of his term. His legislation, which his office released Tuesday night, prompted a wide reaction Wednesday from gambling companies, among others. The Cordish Cos., the owner of Maryland’s largest casino, called the plan “patently unfair,” while another gambling company operating in Maryland, Penn National Gaming, said it is concerned over the governor’s plan. Meanwhile, National Harbor, a leading prospective casino site in Prince George’s, and MGM Resorts, the company lined up to operate the venue, said in a statement that they were grateful for O’Malley’s efforts and would continue to work with him and lawmakers “to maximize the economic opportunity” for the county and the state. Both companies are expected to be part of a parade of witnesses at a Senate hearing Thursday shortly after the special session opens. The real battle looms in the House of Delegates, where a similar bill died on the final night of this year’s regular legislative session — with O’Malley largely staying out of the fray. O’Malley aides forecast that the governor’s proposal would net more than $200 million a year for the state after a Prince George’s facility opens in mid-2016. Del. Justin D. Ross (D-Prince George’s), the No. 2 vote counter in the House, said that he considers the new bill fair and that the dynamic seems to have changed in his chamber in recent weeks, as O’Malley has pushed to revisit the issue and consulted heavily with House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel). “The bill is a better product than the last time we took this up,” Ross said. O’Malley’s legislation includes several provisions intended to compensate Cordish and Caesars Entertainment, the operator of a planned casino in Baltimore, for the competition that would come from Prince George’s. Both casinos would get to keep an additional 5 percent of slots revenue, up from 33 percent now. Both would have a chance to appeal to the state for greater relief. And all Maryland slots operators would be allowed to keep 80 percent of the revenue from table games. In a statement Wednesday, Caesars Chairman Gary W. Loveman credited O’Malley and Busch with crafting “a fair and well-thought-out bill” that his company can support. But Joe Weinberg, Cordish’s managing partner, made it clear that he thinks the bill’s provisions fall well short of what is needed to protect Maryland Live!, the company’s venue in Anne Arundel County that opened in June. Weinberg said the company invested more than $500 million in the casino, which is drawing heavily from the Washington region. “We have played by the rules created by the state and never asked for any concession or break,” he said. “We delivered a world-class facility that is already generating tens of millions of dollars of taxes for the state monthly, as promised.” A spokeswoman for Penn National Gaming, which has one casino in Maryland and is interested in another in Prince George’s, said the company also has concerns about the legislation. The bill would invite bids for the new casino from a swath of Prince George’s that includes National Harbor and Rosecroft Raceway, which Penn owns. Penn spokeswoman Karen Bailey said the company remains concerned about whether there will be “a level and fair playing field,” given that Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) has openly championed a National Harbor site. Bailey said Penn is also concerned that the Maryland casino it owns, Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County, would be the only facility not to receive targeted tax relief. Gambling has been a festering issue in Annapolis for about a decade. In 2007, O’Malley brokered a legislative compromise that launched Maryland’s slots program, authorizing five locations around the state. O’Malley said Wednesday that it was probably a mistake not to have legalized table games at the time. Since then, casinos in Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania have all added table games. The governor also defended provisions in the bill that provide additional revenue to casino owners to compensate them for the Prince George’s competition. “This is all about trying to maximize the bottom line for Maryland taxpayers,” O’Malley said.

Md. casinos see slight drop in overall revenue since last year

Maryland’s five casinos took in $89.7 million in revenue in November, down a half percent from November a year ago. The Casino at Ocean Downs, near Ocean City, and Horseshoe Baltimore had the month’s best performances. Horseshoe Baltimore made $24.6 million in revenue in November, an increase of $1.2 million, or 5.2 percent, over November 2014. The Casino at Ocean Downs, which only operates slot machines, took in $3.8 million, a 15.6 percent jump from last year. Rocky Gap Casino Resort’s revenue of $3.5 million represented a 1.8 percent increase over the year before. The biggest loser in November was Maryland Live, which generated $51.6 million, a 4 percent drop from November 2014. Revenue was also down slightly at Hollywood Casino Perryville. It took in $6.6 million, a 1.6 percent decrease from the previous November.

For casino professionals, a willingness to move is crucial to moving up

It wasn’t you, Delaware. It was him and his itinerant industry. Last November, after Maryland voters approved a dramatic expansion of casino gambling that will introduce table games to the Free State, Dover Downs pit boss Al Foschini got the same call he had received so many times before. Would he consider moving to another area to help yet another casino get its blackjack, roulette and craps tables up and running? Foschini — a natty, 56-year-old Philadelphian with a stone-serious aura and a high, raspy voice that’s straight out of casino-world central casting — had been lured to Dover by one of his best friends in the business. He liked the casino. He liked the area. And then he left, because the Maryland Live Casino’s offer included a substantial salary increase and more potential for advancement at one of the largest commercial casinos in the country. Foschini took the money and ran, moving in mid-December to Maryland — his fourth state in roughly five years — to help train and manage hundreds of rookie dealers. “I’m a professional casino opener,” Foschini said with a shrug one recent afternoon at the Maryland Live Casino Dealer School, where 20 well-traveled instructors have been working with gambling greenhorns since the start of the year. Maryland’s gambling industry — previously limited to commercial bingo halls, racetracks and the lottery — has been in growth mode since slots arrived five years ago. Seven thousand slot machines have been set up at three gaming facilities. Maryland Live, which opened June 6 at the Arundel Mills mall, is the newest and largest, pulling in an average of $1.1 million a day in revenue, according to the state Lottery and Gaming Control Commission. ****Now comes a second boom. Harrah’s is building a major casino at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and another is opening near Cumberland later this year. Bidding fora sixth casino in Prince George’s County began this month. Already, the casinos are allowed to operate round the clock; Maryland Live hasn’t closed its doors since Dec. 27. Soon, gamblers will be able to play live table games, too, with cards, chips, dice and licensed dealers. Foschini has personally schooled several dozen students in how to deal the complicated game of craps. He’s also shared a bonus lesson with them: In the rapidly expanding casino business, a willingness to move around helps you move up as gambling management becomes an increasingly peripatetic profession. “I really don’t like moving; I’d rather be settled in one place,” Foschini said as students gathered around three craps tables in the middle of an abandoned retail space at Marley Station Mall, a few miles from Maryland Live. “But the business has changed. Years ago, most people either worked in Atlantic City or Vegas. Now, all these new places are popping up like Wawas. And they offer you better opportunities because they need experienced people.” Casino workers seeking promotions and pay raises have been bouncing across the country like roulette balls for nearly a quarter-century, according to David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. The patternless career path became prevalent in the late 1980s as tribal gambling halls came online and demand for seasoned dealers and supervisors began to spike. “You’ve had people wandering around pretty much ever since then,” Schwartz said. “There’s always a new jurisdiction opening up.” Thirty-eight states have legalized commercial or Native American casinos. Accordingly, nearly all of the Maryland Live Casino Dealer School trainers have ample mileage on their professional odometers — though perhaps none more than Paula Dwaileebe, who is overseeing the intensive, 12-week vocational school. Maryland Live is her seventh opening (or so) and her 15th (ish) casino. So long is her résumé that when she was asked to recap it, she said: “Oh, God. How much time do you have?” She broke in as a craps dealer at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City in 1984. From there, she said, she went to Laughlin, Nev.; then Las Vegas (“when Tiny Tim was there”); then Miami, to work as a dealer on a cruise ship that she thinks has since capsized; then Vegas again. “Wait, did I go back to Vegas?” she wondered. She’s been around a few different blocks; it was hard to keep track. “You know what, I think I went from Laughlin to the cruise ship to Vegas. I only went to Vegas once.” Then, she said: Biloxi, Miss.; Shreveport, La.; Milwaukee; Tucson and Scottsdale, Ariz.; Milwaukee again (she still owns a house there); Chester, W.Va.; and Erie, Pa., where she helped open Presque Isle Downs before bolting for Maryland Live with her boyfriend, John Petrovich. They’ll both serve as shift managers when the table games go live sometime this spring — a power couple for the high-stakes set. “I’ve been more places than probably anybody here,” Dwaileebe said. “I always moved for a better job or better money.” But: “At my age anymore” — she’s 50 this month — “I don’t really enjoy it. I’m hoping this is it for me.” She laughed, then clarified: That doesn’t necessarily mean the final stop. “Just the last company I work for,” she said of Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., which developed Maryland Live and has since applied for casino licenses in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. If Cordish wins a bid in either state, some of Maryland Live’s managers could be asked to open the new property. Their departures would set off a chain reaction that would probably include promotions from within the dealer ranks, Dwaileebe said. Afterward, she said, some employees could continue to ascend without ever leaving the massive casino at Arundel Mills. Imagine! “You _can_ move up without moving around,” said Rob Norton, the president and general manager of Maryland Live. But being open to moving generally accelerates advancement, Norton said. “This business is not Starbucks; casinos are not in every state, they’re not on every corner. The limited number of them, even with expansion, leaves few opportunities to grow at a single spot.” Norton grew up in the business with his father, longtime gambling executive H. Steven Norton. Rob Norton was born in the Bahamas, on Paradise Island, then moved to Atlantic City and eventually Las Vegas. As an adult, he’s never stopped relocating, making 10 moves in 15 years. “It’s definitely not for everybody,” Norton said of the industry’s wayfaring ways. You go where the work is: Biloxi; Lake Charles, La.; Kansas City; Vicksburg, Miss.; Wexford, Pa. He now lives in Severna Park with his wife and four children. Stability, he said, would be staying put “for the next five years or so.” To be clear, the casino nomads don’t live like carnies. Some moved with young families to neighborhoods several miles from the casino. Others leased bachelor pads minutes from work. Neal Sloane perfected the art of relocating decades ago, before he got into the gambling business. The casino’s vice president for table games — which makes him something like the dealer school’s rector — once worked in the travel business throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He found his first casino job in Britain (he’s Irish), then moved to the Bahamas and Budapest and, eventually, Mississippi. He has since been based everywhere from Bossier City, La., to Erie, Pa. “When I was younger, I’d go everywhere; it was a lot of fun to travel around,” he said. “A job comes up, you say: ‘Well that’s interesting, I’ll go and try it if it’s good career-wise.’ But when you get older, you start looking for quality of life.” He wasn’t finding it in Chester, W.Va., where he’d been working in senior management at the Mountaineer casino. “You’re either doing a 30-mile commute or you live in the boonies,” he said. When Norton asked him to come to Maryland Live, Sloane jumped. “It’s a big improvement of quality of life,” he said. “It’s very comfortable here. Maryland’s a nice place — even though I haven’t had a chance to see much of it.” Too busy, he said. He’s been plotting the new casino’s floor layout, writing state-mandated standard operating procedures, overseeing personnel decisions and making sure the newly designed gaming tables are delivered on time. He’s also ordering cards and dice and a staggering load of Maryland Live-branded chips, with values from $1 to $10,000. He hasn’t had time to start house-hunting, even though he’s been here since April. The lease on his apartment, less than half a mile from the casino, is about to expire. Maybe he’ll get around to buying something in Annapolis before then; maybe he won’t. But he’d like to settle here, he said. “I keep saying this is going to be my last one,” he said of his frequent moves. He laughed. Peripatetic people usually do.

Gamblers brave lines for first glimpse of Horseshoe Baltimore

After a glitzy, photo-op filled ceremony that featured the governor and the mayor, the people of Baltimore welcomed their first casino their own way Tuesday night. With a half hour to go before the new Horseshoe casino opened to the public, a crowd made up mostly of senior citizens and the wheelchair bound, massed before a set of glass doors on the ground floor, by an empty red carpet. They had gathered there after being told they would be allowed to go in a few minutes early. But then they were told they would have to wait until 9 p.m. like everyone else. Thats when the shouting began: “Let us through!” “You are violating the American with Disabilities Act!” yelled a woman gripping a walker. The queue for the general public started a couple blocks away, past a Public Storage facility and a salvage store, in a surface parking lot guarded by casino staff. To mark Horseshoe’s opening, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) and Stephen Martino, director of the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, took turns pulling down a giant slot-machine lever to signal that the betting near the Inner Harbor could begin, and upping the state’s bet on legalized gambling as a source of tax revenue and jobs. “Horseshoe brings the promise of a better Baltimore,” Rawlings-Blake declared before an estimated 15,000 visitors streamed in. Rawlings-Blake was joined on stage by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who noted that Maryland’s burgeoning casino industry has generated more than 5,000 jobs. About 1,700 of them are at Horseshoe, in a city where the unemployment rate is almost 10 percent. ****The $442 million casino, owned by Caesars Entertainment, is the state’s fifth since Marylanders legalized slots in 2008 and table games in 2012. It joins a growing list of casinos that have opened in major cities, bringing with them desperately needed jobs as well as concerns about placing 24-hour gambling halls on the doorsteps of those who can least afford to play — and lose. But gambling’s social costs took a back seat Tuesday to celebration by public officials and Horseshoe executives. Caesars chief executive Gary Loveman touted the casino’s urban setting, saying it was “built to meld in.” Casinos have already boosted gambling’s contribution to the state’s Education Trust and General Fund by almost $300 million for fiscal 2014. Horseshoe’s arrival will send that number even higher. If state projections turn out to be right, gambling in Maryland is on the verge of becoming a $1 billion industry. Horseshoe enters an increasingly crowded Mid-Atlantic casino market, where the success of new gambling halls has come at the price of the established ones in West Virginia, Delaware and Atlantic City. One of the biggest winners has been Maryland Live, the two-year-old casino next to the Arundel Mills mall, just 12 miles south of downtown Baltimore. Maryland Live is expected to be the hardest hit by competition from Horseshoe and MGM’s planned casino resort at National Harbor, slated to open in 2016. The state’s other casinos are smaller and farther away, in Perryville, Rocky Gap and Berlin. As of July, Live owned an 80 percent share of the state’s casino market, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’s Center for Gaming Research estimated. On Tuesday, retiree Clarice Nelson, 67, of West Baltimore was officially declared the first person in line, having arrived via the 27 bus at 9 a.m. She said she came early expecting to find people who had camped out overnight. When she didn’t, she decided to stay anyway. She set up a chair in the center of the lot, ate her breakfast, and chatted with each new shift of security guards. “Time went by fast,” she said. By 6, dozens more had joined her. “What you get for being first in line?” a woman behind her asked. “Nothing,” Nelson said. A man in line pulled out a dollar. “Hey, hey,” he said, waving it until Nelson took it. “Make that the first dollar played.” Nelson said she wished she was rich enough to play poker instead of slots. The most she ever won off a slot machine was $350, “years ago,” she said, laughing. As 9 p.m. approached, a casino worker appeared before Nelson and held up his arms to get people’s attention. “This is what I need from everyone: Calm and orderly! Can I hear you say it?” The crowd of about 300 yelled back: “Calm and orderly!” It was less calm and orderly on the third floor of the parking garage, where hundreds more had queued up by another entrance. (More than 15,000 visited the casino in the first few hours, a spokesman later said.) At the front of the line, a few impatient gamblers argued with police officers guarding the door. At 9 p.m., police began letting people through and a cheer echoed through the lot.

Maryland racing hit the jackpot; now it’s time to share some with bettors

Maryland’s once-healthy thoroughbred industry began its descent to minor-league status in the mid-1990s. When slot machines were legalized in neighboring states, horses and stables exited Maryland to compete for larger purses. Amid the decline, Laurel Park and Pimlico suffered from bad management. Moreover, the tracks’ owners and their horsemen were constantly at war with each other, and they could never agree on any plan to revive the industry. In view of this dismal history, people who care about horse racing can scarcely believe what has just happened. Maryland racing has not only been saved, but it is about to enter an era of growth and unprecedented prosperity. Dec. 14, 2012 will be remembered as the day that changed everything. On that day, representatives of the Maryland Jockey Club and the state’s horsemen signed a 10-year agreement that establishes a new economic structure for the sport. They resolved the crucial issue (and other peripheral ones) that had divided them for the past two years. When Maryland belatedly legalized slot machines and earmarked a portion of the revenue for horse racing, the Stronach Group, the tracks’ parent company, inexplicably failed to make a bid to get slots at Laurel Park. The slot franchise in Anne Arundel County instead went to the Maryland Live casino. Yet a percentage of money from slots — wherever they are located — goes into racetrack purses, and the revenue from Maryland Live would give horsemen a windfall. But the Maryland Jockey Club was losing millions of dollars a year and had no incentive to operate more than a minimal racing schedule. The track and the horsemen negotiated (often acrimoniously) for two years before they agreed on a logical plan. The horsemen ceded some of their slot revenue to management. If horsemen want to race more than 100 days per year, which they almost certainly will, they will pay a fee to the track for each additional day. Thus the Maryland Jockey Club gets the chance to make a reasonable profit. (The two sides also resolved other long-simmering issues; the MJC will close the costly Bowie training center and will build additional stalls at Laurel.) Tom Chuckas, CEO of the tracks, says the importance of the 10-year deal is that it allows everybody in the industry to plan confidently for the future. Purses at the tracks, already bolstered by revenue from Maryland Live, now average around $245,000 a day. When new casinos in downtown Baltimore and Prince George’s County go into operation, that figure could approach $400,000 a day, putting Laurel and Pimlico in company with the nation’s elite tracks. Chuckas said, “Breeders can look ahead and breed Maryland horses. Owners can buy horses. And the Maryland Jockey Club can make plans for capital improvements. Now it’s easier to make an investment of substance.” Understandably, trainers, owners, breeders and the tracks’ management are elated by their prospects. Yet the history of slot-machine subsidies in other states provides grounds for some skepticism. At most of the tracks whose purses have been bolstered by slot money, the sport has not become more popular or self-sustaining. Thoroughbred tracks such as Parx (the former Philadelphia Park), Delaware Park and Presque Isle Downs, as well as just about all of the harness tracks with subsidies, have few fans in the grandstand and unimpressive betting totals. Even committed racing fans pay little attention to them. Most economists deplore what they call cross-subsidization, taking money from successful enterprises to prop up losers, and it’s hard to make a good case why states should force casinos to subsidize racetracks that can’t survive on their own merits. Nevertheless, the Maryland horse industry is a special case; it deserves this help. The state’s tracks were profitable, and its breeding industry was an exemplary success until Maryland was crushed by competition from tracks with slot money. The subsidy for purses at Laurel and Pimlico levels the playing field. And the nature of the Dec. 14 deal makes Maryland different, too. At operations such as Parx, Delaware Park and Charles Town, which make huge profits from casino gambling, horse racing is largely irrelevant. But the Maryland Jockey Club won’t be in the slot business, and it has ample incentive to promote racing and to try to increase the sport’s business. This will be no easy task. In the past, improving the decrepit facilities at Laurel and Pimlico might have lured more fans. But in an era when bettors can watch races on television at home and bet by phone, Laurel and Pimlico aren’t going attract big live crowds except on special days. But if the Maryland Jockey Club wants to attract the attention of horseplayers, there is one thing that it could and should do: reduce the takeout. Over the years, the Maryland tracks have sought to increase purses by extracting more money from every betting dollar. They used to take 15 percent from each win bet; now the rate is 18 percent. The takeout from trifectas is an exorbitant 25.75 percent. (By contrast, Kentucky takes 19 percent from its trifectas.) Now that the industry is about to be awash in money from Maryland Live and other casinos, there is no justification for squeezing every possible dollar from its customers. A substantial takeout reduction would appeal to simulcast bettors across the country and boost wagering on Maryland races. And it would contain an element of fairness. When a relatively small number of breeders, trainers and owners are going to enjoy a windfall from the new economics of Maryland racing, the industry should give a small break to the betting public that has continued to support the game.

Three smaller winners from Md. and Va. after historic Powerball lottery

She almost threw away her winning $1 million lottery ticket from Wednesday night’s $1 billion-plus Powerball drawing. That’s the story Kathryn and her husband, Ricardo, told Maryland lottery officials Thursday when they went to claim their prize after the biggest lottery drawing in the history of the game. The couple’s last name was not revealed because Maryland is one of six states where winners can remain anonymous or have few details released on their identities. But they did snap their photo holding the oversized $1 million check at lottery headquarters in the “Winners Lounge.” Kathryn told lottery officials “I still can’t breathe.” There were three winning tickets for the $1.6 billion jackpot. They were purchased in Tennessee, Florida and California, lottery officials said. On Thursday, two of the non-jackpot winners also came forward: A 25-year-old woman in a suburb of Baltimore won about $50,000, and another woman in Stafford, Va., won $1 million. For Kathryn, Thursday morning — the day after the big drawing — was just another day, she told lottery officials. She went to work and told colleagues she was going to “throw out her Powerball ticket since there were no jackpot winners in Maryland,” lottery officials said. But wait, a co-worker told her, you may want to look at your ticket because someone bought a winning $1 million ticket at the Wawa on Urbana Pike in Frederick. Hold on. “I checked the ticket and saw that we won,” Kathryn said. She went to the Wawa, the clerk scanned her ticket. When the clerk told her it was too large to cash the prize, Kathryn said “I knew it was really happening.” The Wawa store gets $2,500 for selling the winning ticket. Lottery officials said the couple told them they have “big but realistic plans for their prize” money. They said they plan to buy a house, take a vacation and start a college fund for their 10-month-old baby. Oh, and Ricardo said he wants a new truck and a nice watch. Ricardo, 36, told lottery officials that “one of the best parts about this was calling my mom.” “All these years, I’ve wondered what it would be like to call my mom and tell her I won the lottery,” he said. “It felt great to be able to make that call.” The big Powerball lottery draw had attracted plenty of ticket buyers across the country as many waited in line for a chance to dream of what they would buy. The jackpot grew to a record sum, since no one won the Nov. 4 Powerball lottery drawing and each one — twice a week — since then. Lottery fever really took hold last week, as the jackpot neared $900 million, and then exploded to reach the $1.6 billion record. Powerball, which started in the 1990s, is played in 44 states, the District, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There were two other winners in Maryland for $1 million prizes from Wednesday’s Powerball drawing. The other winning tickets were sold in Capitol Heights and Bladensburg. In Virginia, there were two winners of $1 million: the one in Salem and another in Virginia Beach. There were no $1 million winners in the District. Another smaller payout winner — Debbie Taylor of Stafford, Va. — collected her $100,000 from Wednesday’s drawing. She laughed on Thursday, telling lottery officials there, “I think I’ve played less than 10 times in my life.” Her plans for her prize money? Nothing big. Pay bills and maybe going out for a nice dinner, Taylor told lottery officials. Another smaller, local area winner from Wednesday’s Powerball drawing was a 25-year-old woman in Randallstown, Md., who is a recent nursing school graduate. She won $50,012. The woman said she is going to pay off her student loans and her car. She said she plans to save what’s left, according to lottery officials. The woman hid her face behind the fake check when she claimed her prize at lottery headquarters. Only her well manicured nails — painted red — could be seen, and the check was written out to “Sitting Pretty.” The winning numbers in the Wednesday’s drawing were 4-8-19-27-34, with a Powerball number 10. So before you chuck those “losers,” check them one more time. You might have even won your money back.

Maryland Live Casino had a very big 2013

Thirteen was a lucky number for Maryland Live. The state’s largest casino collected $586 million in gross gambling revenue in 2013, according to data released Tuesday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University The pre-tax haul included nearly $153 million from live-action table games, which Maryland Live began offering in April. Maryland’s four casinos generated nearly $750 million in total gambling revenue last year. About $415 million was collected in taxes, including $315 million that went to the Education Trust Fund. Statewide casino revenue in December totaled $65 million, with Maryland Live contributing the bulk of it: $52 million. It was the Arundel Mills casino’s eighth consecutive month of $50 million or more in gross gambling revenue. **UPDATE (5:35 p.m.)** : “We’re very pleased with our performance,” Rob Norton, Maryland Live’s president and general manager, said in a statement. “The addition of live action tables and poker has been very exciting for the property from an experience and revenue standpoint, while slots showed steady growth through the year, even with the addition of tables.”    *[WSU]: Wayne State University

Mega Millions winner in Maryland presents ticket, claims $106 million share

The holder of the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket purchased in Maryland presented it Monday at lottery headquarters, officials said. But little other information was available about the ticket, which has spawned rumor, speculation and at least one lawsuit. The nine-figure prize “was claimed today,” said Carole Everett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery. But she said the winner has indicated a wish to remain anonymous. Nevertheless, the lottery agency will hold a news conference Tuesday, Everett said. Even without identifying the winner by name, she said, “we have a wonderful story.” The after-taxes lump-sum value of the winning ticket is more than $105 million, Everett said. The winning ticket was bought the day of the drawing at a convenience store in Millford Mill, in Baltimore County. Three winning tickets were sold nationally in the drawing, which offered a record $656 million payout. One ticket was bought in Kansas and another in Illinois. Last week, nationwide attention focused on Mirlande Wilson, 37, of Baltimore, who appeared at a news conference after reportedly claiming to have the winning ticket. An attorney for her said Monday that he did not know whether Wilson was the person who presented the ticket. But he said a lawsuit has been filed against her by someone who contributed to a fund she used to purchase tickets. The suit seeks a share of the winnings. “This thing has kind of snowballed,” said Edward Smith Jr., the lawyer. **More on this story:** \- Maryland woman, coworkers disagree on who bought ticket \- For lotteries, disputes are often part of the game \- Americans bemoan lottery losses as three tickets share $640 million jackpot \- Read more local headlines

Md.’s casinos score new revenue records

March was massive for Maryland’s burgeoning casino business, which shattered the statewide record with nearly $78 million in gross gambling revenue, according to data released Monday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University The previous statewide record was $71 million, last August.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University The calendar was a contributing factor: There were five weekends in March (which began on a Saturday), giving the state’s four casinos more high-volume days than usual. Seasonal trends also tilted in their favor, according to Maryland casino officials: as winter ends, they traditionally see an uptick in business. Leading the way during the month of explosive growth was Maryland Live, which generated $61.7 million from slots and tables — obliterating the property’s previous record of $55 million, set in May. The airplane-terminal-sized casino hauled in $38.1 million from its 4,322 slot machines in March along with $23.6 million from table games — including $2.5 million from the 52-table poker room.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University It was Maryland Live’s 11th consecutive month with pretax revenues of $50 million or more — a streak that began last May, the first full month of operations for the table-games division. Total slot revenue at the Arundel Mills casino actually fell by about 14 percent compared to March 2013; but the 177 tables made up for the difference and then some. Excluding Rocky Gap Casino, the picturesque Western Maryland resort that opened last May, year-over-year casino revenue in the state was up 27 percent, or $15.8 million, over last March, mostly because of Maryland Live, which typically accounts for three-quarters or more of the state’s gambling revenue. Compared to last March, revenue at Hollywood Casino Perryville fell by about 16 percent, or $1.5 million, $7.9 million. The Casino at Ocean Downs saw a slight increase in year-over-year March revenue, to $4.1 million. Rocky Gap generated just under $4 million in pretax gambling revenue. Of the record statewide haul — which was exactly $77,850,831, according to regulators — just over half was collected in taxes, including more than $30 million for the Education Trust Fund. The casinos have sent more than $241 million to the education fund during the current fiscal year. Maryland’s gambling-revenue landscape will expand and shift in August or September, when the Horseshoe Casino opens in downtown Baltimore — and again in 2016, when MGM National Harbor opens in Prince George’s County.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University

As Maryland’s casino market expands, a gambling foe wants the focus on addiction

“While you and Midas Maryland are counting the gambling gross,” began an e-mail from Marc “Kap” Kapastin, “let’s not lose sight of the woes experienced by the contributors of their precious treasure.” Kapastin was responding to a brief story I’d done on the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore, which is expected to generate $425 million to $454 million in gambling revenue in its first full fiscal year. The Horseshoe’s haul would push Maryland’s casino revenues past the $1 billion-a-year mark, according to a pair of independent studies.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University For Kapastin, the revenue figures are irrelevant. His concern is with “the evils of state-sponsored gambling” — particularly the human fallout. “Slot machine gambling preys upon the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society,” he argued in his e-mail. It’s an argument he’s been making for a while: In 2008, as casino legislation was being debated in Maryland, Kapastin produced a 33-minute anti-gambling documentary that includes testimony from a recovering addict.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University I wrote about compulsive gambling earlier this year, in a front-page story. Addiction experts feared that the state’s expansion of casino gambling would set off a wave of self-destruction among Maryland’s compulsive gamblers, who were estimated in a study to number roughly 150,000. I profiled one of them: “Ray,” a binge craps player whose addiction cost him his family, his savings and his career. He was especially vulnerable, with Maryland Live opening eight craps tables barely two miles from his house.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University As I was reporting the story, I also spent time with Dee, a member of Ray’s support network whose own gambling addiction nearly destroyed her. I didn’t include much about Dee in the story, but her addiction was to slots, which she played frequently, for long stretches — 10 or 12 hours at a time. So many losses; so many lies, she said. Sometimes, she’d call in sick to her job in federal Washington, saying she had migraines, when she was just exhausted because she’d gambled all night. Instead of sleeping it off, she frequently went back to gamble more. Once, after her husband fell asleep, she quietly left their house and headed to Hollywood Casino in Perryville. She was dismayed to learn that the casino was closing at midnight, leaving her just 45 minutes to play. “A normal person would turn around and go home,” she told me. “I was not normal. I was sick.” So she drove up I-95, to Delaware Park Casino, where she played the machines into the next afternoon. She hadn’t bothered telling anybody where she was, and she didn’t answer the frantic calls from her family because she was in her gambling zone and nothing else mattered. Her husband and children searched for her at several casinos. They worried that something horrible had happened. In a way, it had. She’d triggered a switch, she said, “that wouldn’t shut off.”  Finally, after a months-long binge, she played her last slot machine on April 2, 2012. But the damage was done. At the time the story was published, 230 people had joined Maryland’s Voluntary Exclusion Program, an extra deterrent for addicts who agree that they can be arrested and prosecuted if they enter any of the state’s casinos. The self-exclusion program has since grown to 353.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Ray, by the way, told me this morning that he’s “doing well” and ignoring the siren call of casino craps, the game that broke him. “Participating in the GA program helps me,” he said, referring to Gamblers Anonymous. He attends two GA meetings each week — including one he started this year in Glen Burnie, about 15 minutes from Maryland Live.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University A sad postscript: Joanna Franklin, program director at the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, died in early October. Franklin was a national expert on compulsive gambling with a long history here: She began working with Maryland’s problem gamblers in 1979, when Johns Hopkins created the country’s first state-financed residential treatment program. She has not yet been replaced at the center.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University

Truck driver wins $2.85 million in his second Maryland lottery jackpot

For a 39-year-old truck driver from a Baltimore suburb, luck really did strike twice. The man, who asked not to be named, came forward Monday for his $2.85 million lottery prize — his second time winning a large jackpot in Maryland. Maryland is one of a handful of states that does not require lottery winners to reveal their identities. The man told lottery officials on Monday that he had won a $250,000 Mega Millions prize in Maryland in 2005. Maryland lottery officials said they do sometimes have winners who win twice — but not too often. “We’ll get someone who wins more than once occasionally, but maybe not to this degree,” said Carole Everett, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery. “I can’t recall a time that we’ve had the same person win this big twice.” According to what the truck driver told the lottery: He’s been playing the state’s “Multi-Match” game since it started in 2006, and likes to buy his tickets at various stores along his truck driving route. Last week, he stopped for gas at a Safeway store in Waldorf. He told lottery officials that it felt like a good location to buy tickets for the Christmas Day drawing. He didn’t realize for a few days that he had won. He said he went online Friday and saw that someone had won the jackpot. He said he didn’t think too much more of it but later saw that the winning ticket was sold at a Safeway store on King Street in Waldorf. “I still didn’t think much of it until Saturday morning, when I saw that it was sold at the Safeway store,” he told lottery officials. “That’s when I checked my numbers and realized that I was the winner.” The last time he won, the man said, he put a downpayment on a house for his wife and two sons. With his most recent winnings — $2.2 million in the cash option that he chose — he said he plans to pay off the house mortgage, take a vacation and save for his children. The truck driver’s second-time winning was first reported by the Baltimore Sun.

MGM gets state clearance to open its National Harbor casino Thursday night

MGM is ready to open in Prince George’s County, Maryland gaming officials said Wednesday. Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency issued an operating license Wednesday to the gaming giant, clearing the way for it to open to the public Thursday night. The authorization comes after two successful controlled gaming demonstrations in the last week, during which state gaming inspectors performed audits and reviews of the facility. Inspectors found no major issues with the casino operations, Maryland Lottery and Gaming officials said. “MGM National Harbor successfully demonstrated that it has met the state’s legal and regulatory requirements and is ready to open,” said Maryland Lottery and Gaming Director Gordon Medenica, who signed the operations license Wednesday. MGM is opening it’ Maryland operation on a 23-acre parcel on the banks of the Potomac River at National Harbor. The $1.4 billion project is completed just three years after the state lottery and gaming control agency selected MGM for the state’s sixth and final casino license. On Thursday and Monday state gaming inspectors tested and assessed MGM’s systems and controls, including 3,321 slot machines and 165 table games.  The procedures were to ensure operating standards are being followed, and identify any training-related issues before opening, officials said. About 7,500 people attended the controlled demonstrations. Maryland Lottery and Gaming said the casino’s share of proceeds from the testing dates will be donated to local nonprofits including the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation Back to School Fair and the Alice Ferguson Foundation of Accokeek, Md. Maryland’s casino program has generated more than $4.28 billion in revenue to the state since it began in 2010, Maryland Lottery and Gaming said.

Are Mega Millions players suckers?

Lottery ticket lines swelled Friday as the record Mega Millions jackpot grew to $640 million, thanks to players who cast aside concerns about long odds and opened their wallets for a shot at what could be the biggest single lotto payout in the world. A café worker in Arizona reported selling $2,600 worth of tickets to one buyer, while a retired soldier in Wisconsin doubled his regular weekly ticket spending to $55. But each would have to put down millions more to guarantee a win. “I feel like a fool throwing that kind of money away,” said Jesse Carter, whose two tickets purchased Friday in Milwaukee, brought him to $55 in total spending on the drawing this week. “But it’s a chance you take in life, with anything you do.” The jackpot, if taken as a $462 million lump sum and after federal tax withholding, works out to about $347 million. With the jackpot odds at 1 in 176 million, it would cost $176 million to buy up every combination. Under that scenario, the strategy would win $171 million less if your state also withholds taxes. Laura Horsley, who does communications and marketing for a trade association, bought $20 worth of Quick Pick tickets at a downtown Washington, D.C., liquor store Friday. But Horsley, who said she won’t buy a lottery ticket unless the jackpot tops $100 million, said she remained realistic. “I don’t actually think I’m going to win, and I don’t believe in superstitions or numbers or anything like that,” she said. “I just figured it’s right around the corner. I’d be crazy not at least to give it a shot.” Thousands of players — who converged on convenience stores in 42 states and Washington, D.C., where Mega Millions tickets are sold — agreed.   It makes you wonder how some California public schools have had to hold bake sales to keep the lights on, doesn’t it?  In fact, in state after state, where lotteries send millions of dollars to public education, schools are still starved. Why?  In Virginia, lottery tickets have a tagline that says “Helping Virginia’s Public Schools” and more than $5 billion in lottery proceeds have gone to public education in the last 24 years, about $450 million annually.  “That’s been a slow and insidious movement that’s been going on for a few years now,” Kitty Boitnott, president of the Virginia Education Association, was quoted in the Virginian-Pilot, as saying. “It’s a big ruse, and I don’t believe Virginians, in general, are aware of it.”    More from The Washington Post:

Another month, another $50 million-plus for Maryland Live Casino

This is not a broken record: Maryland Live Casino raked in more than $50 million in gross gambling revenue last month. Yes, again. The Anne Arundel County casino’s pre-tax take was $53,422,841 in November — the seventh consecutive month that it has cleared at least $50 million on its slot machines and table games. Collectively, the state’s four casinos brought in $66.8 million in November, according to figures released Thursday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University Excluding Rocky Gap Casino, the picturesque Western Maryland resort that opened in the spring, year-over-year casino revenue in the state was up 47 percent, or $20.4 million, for the month. Nearly the entire increase came from live-action table games, which were approved last year by voters as part of a dramatic expansion of gaming in Maryland: November revenue from blackjack, craps, roulette and other table games at Maryland Live and Hollywood Casino Perryville was $20.28 million — all but $1 million of it coming from Maryland Live. Year-over-year revenue was up at all three casinos that were already opened by this time last year. Hollywood Casino Perryville’s $6.6 million haul was 22 percent above last November’s figures, according to the state. The Casino at Ocean Downs — the Eastern Shore racetrack casino whose business always slows significantly after Labor Day — generated $3.4 million, up nearly 5 percent from last November. Revenue at Maryland Live — by far the state’s largest casino, with 4,328 slot machines and 174 gaming tables (including poker) — jumped by more than 55 percent over last November. More than $26 million of the November gambling revenue goes into the state’s Education Trust Fund, which has collected nearly $290 from Maryland’s four casinos this year. A fifth gambling property — Horseshoe Casino Baltimore — is scheduled to open in the second half of 2014. A state commission will meet Friday in Annapolis to discuss the three applicants for the state’s sixth and final casino license, in Prince George’s County.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University MGM Resorts is proposing to build a $925 million casino and hotel at National Harbor. An affiliate of Greenwood Racing wants to build a $761 million Parx- branded gambling resort on a wooded 22-acre lot off Indian Head Highway in Fort Washington. Penn National Gaming is proposing a $700 million Hollywood- branded casino and hotel at the historic Rosecroft harness-racing track.    *[WSU]: Wayne State University The Video Lottery Facility Location Commission plans to award the Prince George’s license on Dec. 20.

Washington firms, Maryland consultants won big in expanded gambling fight

Campaign finance reports filed late Tuesday showed a handful of Washington’s biggest media buying firms and Maryland political consultants benefited handsomely from the ballot-box brawl over expanding gambling — the costliest election in state history. Three ballot-issue committees involved in the fight together raised more than $93 million from gambling companies and others with a stake in Question 7, which will allow a new casino in Prince George’s County and table games at all Maryland slots locations. The new reports show about $90.5 million of the money collected was spent on the campaign, with nearly $3 million left sitting in the bank accounts of the ballot-issue committees. Much of that will go toward unpaid bills. MGM Resorts, which is angling to build a casino at National Harbor, was the biggest donor by far to a pro-gambling expansion committee, contributing about $40 million of the $46 million it raised — much of it for television advertising. A second pro-expansion committee led by former Prince George’s county executive Wayne K. Curry (D) reported having raised $3.1 million and spent $2.7 million, much of it on direct mail and radio advertising. Penn National Gaming was the sole funder of a ballot committee on the losing side that reported spending roughly $42 million of the $44 million Penn contributed. The company’s properties include a West Virginia casino that stands to lose business when a new venue opens in Prince George’s. Cash was heaped by the two larger committees on a tight circle of Washington firms that had experience working for casino owners, as well as ties to top Democrats and Republicans. Billing hours and commissions mounted for former aides and campaign staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has an especially close relationship with MGM Resorts, his constituent now best positioned to win rights to construct a towering, Las Vegas-style casino on the southern end of Washington’s skyline. Former aides to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who backed the measure, had much at stake as well. The public affairs firm of O’Malley’s former communications director received payments from both pro-expansion committees; and the brain trust of O’Malley’s 2010 reelection campaign reunited to find the winning message with voters. Overall, GMMB, the media buying firm on the payroll of the committee backed by MGM, collected the most. The committee funneled $34.2 million to GMMB to purchase advertising. Company strategists had previously worked on reelection efforts for Reid. The firm’s biggest client this year was President Obama’s campaign. Media-buying firms take a commission, believed to range between 3 and 15 percent, depending in part on whether the firm also produces the ad. On the opposition side, the committee backed by Penn National Gaming, sent $25.4 million to Mentzer Media for advertising purchases, and $18.2 million to DCI Group — firms that were also top advertising agents for Republican PACs and the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The Baltimore public affairs firm of O’Malley’s former communications director, Steve Kearney, directly collected nearly $185,000 from the MGM-backed committee and $60,000 from the Curry committee, the reports showed. Much of that came in the final weeks when the campaign refocused on a message Kearney’s firm helped sell to lawmakers during a special session in August to put the measure on the ballot — that it boiled down to a vote for Maryland, and against sending money to a Penn casino in West Virginia. In addition to advertising, the MGM-backed campaign sunk another $1.8 million into robo-calls and phone banking efforts, and millions more into field operations, including get-out-the-vote efforts, in the campaign’s final two weeks, the campaign’s report showed. The Curry-led committee reported $258,650 in payments to Larry S. Gibson, whose political career has included work on the campaigns of Curry and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke (D), as well as some national politicians. I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier College in California who has written extensively about gambling said he sees the costly Maryland ballot fight as part of a third wave of legalizing gambling that has allowed casinos to open in about half of U.S. states. “Gambling is really spreading everywhere, and most initiatives for new casinos now fail because established players want to limit competition,” Rose said. “The only way to overcome that is for proponents to neutralize criticism, and they need to spend a tremendous amount to do that.”

Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore opening soon, you’d better believe rivalry is fierce

In the Maryland casino wars, the latest weapon of choice is the billboard. A Maryland Live billboard was clearly visible over the shoulder of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) as she stood outside the unfinished Horseshoe Baltimore a few weeks ago to unveil a street sign that read “Casino Way.” By then, the 12-by-24-foot provocation, which read, “Over $10 billion in payouts and counting,” had been there for a year. It was one more way for the Arundel Mills casino to thumb its nose at its new rival from 12 miles away. Horseshoe Baltimore, owned by Caesars Entertainment, at one point responded by dispatching a truck with a Horseshoe billboard to drive around Maryland Live’s parking lots. On Friday, Horseshoe got its chance to show what Maryland Live is really up against. Live has an Asian gambling area? So does Horseshoe, complete with a hand-carved waterfall relief and custom carpet inlaid with orioles and black-eyed Susans (the official state bird and flower, respectively). Live has a poker room? So does Horseshoe, and it’s going to be a stop on the World Series of Poker circuit. And although Maryland Live — owned and operated by the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. — might have hundreds more slot machines, only Horseshoe has stocked outdoor smoking areas with them. The real competition for customers begins at 9 p.m. Aug. 26, when Horseshoe opens to the public. In the storied annals of casino rivalries, the Live-Horseshoe contest is small-time. It has yet to achieve the heights of one-upmanship that has lined the Vegas Strip with a copy of the Statue of Liberty, a pyramid, fake pirate ships and one ginormous resort after another. But even along Route 295, the consequences for losing are high. One regional monopoly after another has crumbled as casinos have proliferated. Delaware’s Dover Downs has seen its revenue fall since 2006, when the first casinos in Pennsylvania opened. Pennsylvania, in turn, posted its first decline in slot revenue in fiscal year 2013, due in part to increased competition from new casinos in Ohio and Maryland. And Atlantic City, Vegas’s former rival, now faces the prospect of four casinos closing by year’s end and the loss of thousands of jobs. Maryland has four casinos. Horseshoe and MGM National Harbor, which is scheduled to open in 2016, will make that six. Two neighboring states also have casinos, including Pennsylvania, which now generates the second-largest amount of gambling revenue in the nation, behind Nevada. In the new regional gambling wars, proximity has become the ultimate trump card. To overcome that, “you’ve got to give a reason to drive past another casino to go to your casino,” said David Schwartz, author of “Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling,” and director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. From Maryland Live’s opening in 2012 as the nation’s third-largest commercial casino, it has had a relatively easy time picking off Marylanders from casinos in Delaware, West Virginia, Philadelphia and Atlantic City. It controlled about 80 percent of the Maryland casino market in 2013, according to UNLV’s gambling research center. But with Horseshoe’s arrival, it will lose some of that geographic edge. A November 2013 study commissioned by the Maryland Lottery and Control Agency predicted that in 2016, Live’s slots revenue could decrease by 16 percent and table game revenue by 25 percent. And that study didn’t factor in the potential impact of MGM National Harbor, which will open at the other end of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. “It is playing chess on a different level,” said Maryland Live’s general manager, Rob Norton, who grew up in the industry. Casino operators have no illusions that what they are selling is unique, said Oliver Lovat, an international market expert based in London. Slots are slots are slots. Instead, they strive to distinguish themselves in other ways. This has lead to a perpetual arms race that over the decades has involved $1 steak dinners, royal tiger habitats and botanical gardens. These days, it is more likely to revolve around dueling rewards programs that give perks to players the more they play. Horseshoe claims it has an advantage in that area because their members can use their points at other Caesars properties. Over at Arundel Mills, Norton is not fazed. “We’re heading into an environment we are comfortable in,” he said. He and his staff have been gearing up for the competition for weeks. Maryland Live recently unveiled the first million-dollar slot machine in the Northeast. That made for an awkward moment during a recent media tour of Horseshoe when a cameraman asked Horseshoe’s general manager, Chad Barnhill, if he had one. “No,” he said. “That’s at the _other_ one.” Live’s strategy also involves Harley-Davidson giveaways, slot tournaments and buying up ad space in the baggage-claim area at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. And there is still the billboard down the street from Horseshoe. There is a great view of it from one of the casino’s new slot-machine-loaded balconies.

More gambling isn’t the answer for Maryland’s economy

All that glitters is not gold. Maryland’s political leadersare betting the farm on adding table games to our existing slots parlors and constructing a mega-casino in Prince George’s County. In doing so, they are asking Marylanders to double down on a flawed economic strategy that has already proved to be worth far less than advertised. Why the rush to make Maryland the next Atlantic City? Powerful gaming interests want you to believe that this is our only hope for new jobs in this difficult economy. We know better. In 2007, Maryland voters were told that slot machines would generate an additional $660 million for education and would strengthen our economic outlook. We now know this was either wildly optimistic or decidedly misleading. We have seen less than 15 percent of our promised return. And that figure does not count the more than $120 million in taxpayer funds used to purchase the machines or the social expense of dealing with new crime and addiction and increased poverty. Casino interests have promised up to 4,000 jobs with this expansion — an attractive number if these would be new jobs. But given that casinos typically attract 80 percent of their customers from within a 50-mile radius, a form of economic redistribution is more likely. Most of the jobs would slowly but surely be taken from existing local retail, dining and hospitality businesses. A gaming expansion is a short-term fix that distracts us from the work of creating sustainable jobs and growing a diverse economy. Maryland’s ability to bring prosperity to all of our communities is limited only by our creativity, willingness to work harder and smarter, and ability to stay focused on the bigger picture. Here are some ideas to start: ** l Jobs of the future.** Maryland’s potential rests on the expansion of its knowledge-based economy. We have already begun to build expertise in areas such as biotech and nanotechnology, cybersecurity, space exploration and clean energy, and we are at the head of the pack nationally in research and development investment. But we significantly lag our peers in turning these innovative ideas into marketable products. We have to improve on that with a long-term commitment to commercialization and loosening government regulations that are barriers to economic growth. These jobs will also require a skilled workforce. By 2018, an estimated 66 percent of jobs in the state will require postsecondary education. As “Obamacare” takes full effect, we will need as many as 100,000 additional health professionals to serve the newly insured. We must join with employers to take a full inventory of our state’s economic opportunities and aggressively encourage partnerships among business, state and local governments and our robust university and community college system to better align student studies with job opportunities. We can make Maryland a leading state in matching our skills and talent with our economic needs. ** l Small-business tax cuts.** Small-business owners drive the engines of job creation. Freed-up capital in the hands of a small-business entrepreneur is often directly reinvested in the local economy through new hiring, supply purchases and marketing. We can provide tax relief to small businesses by closing the combined-reporting loophole that has allowed some giant corporations to avoid their Maryland tax obligations. Shockingly, between 2008 and 2010, at least 68 Fortune 500 companies across the nation — including Comcast, Verizon and Pepco in our area — paid no state income taxes in at least one of those years. Our economy works best when everyone plays by the same rules. We can boost the bottom line for small businesses while ending shell games for corporate titans. ** l Rebuilding roads and rail.** Rebuilding highways and bridges, investing in Maryland’s globally competitive Port of Baltimore and expanding public- transit options can create construction, maintenance and operations jobs and fuel economic activity. Maryland must give a boost to our dwindling state transportation trust fund. And no revenue option should be off the table to make this happen. ** l Transformative school construction.** Building new schools creates more jobs than almost any other activity in which government engages. Maryland has a backlog of roughly $5.5 billion worth of school construction projects. I have proposed a new kind of public-private partnership, tested in North Carolina and elsewhere, that uses creative financing options to fund sweeping transformations of our school systems. A partnership with private pension funds, which invest billions of dollars annually, can provide the seed money to get this program up and running. If organized labor gets involved, we could guarantee that these new jobs come with good union wages and benefits. Seizing on these long-term opportunities would be like investing in Google as a start-up, while an expansion of gaming is akin to playing the penny slots and praying for a decent jackpot. That leaves us with a choice. We can hunt for fool’s gold or we can make real investments that will pay dividends for decades. Let’s play to win. The writer, a Democrat, represents Montgomery County in the Maryland House of Delegates. ****

Md. General Assembly may hold two special sessions: One on taxes, the other on gambling

Maryland leaders are considering convening two special legislative sessions in the coming months: one on taxes, the other on the expansion of gambling. That prospect emerged Tuesday during a closed-door meeting among Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and the two Democratic leaders of the General Assembly, gathering over breakfast to discuss cleaning up the messy end to this year’s 90-day legislative session. “I think that both issues deserve a hearing and some resolution,” O’Malley later told reporters. “What made this session very disappointing and frustrating by the end was considering both of those issues at the same time.” Lawmakersfailed to pass an agreed-upon tax bill before adjourning at midnight April 9 and left unresolved legislation calling for a statewide vote on a full-fledged casino in Prince George’s County — most likely at National Harbor. No deal was formalized Tuesday. But under a framework floated by O’Malley, lawmakers would return to Annapolis in mid-May to work on a revenue package and again this summer to take up gambling legislation, which could include the addition of table games at Maryland’s five existing slots sites. “Everyone agreed the primary concern is the budget,” House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said after the meeting at the governor’s mansion. He suggested that lawmakers could largely pick up where they left off on a revenue bill, which included an income tax increase for those earning more than $100,000. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), who strongly supports the gambling bill, declined to comment after the meeting. In a letter to O’Malley and Busch late last week, he said he was “both willing and open” to work more on the budget. If no action is taken on a revenue bill by July, more than $500 million in cuts to education and other planned spending will take effect — a scenario that Democratic leaders are seeking to avoid. Among those proposing legislative action is William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, who said in an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun this week that student tuition would increase if the state budget stands as is. Republicans continued to argue Tuesday that reopening work on the budget is not necessary because its overall size would increase even under what Democrats have dubbed the “doomsday” scenario. “These guys are way too eager to raise taxes,” said House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell (R-Calvert), who also mocked Democratic leaders for considering two sessions to take up their remaining business. “These guys just got done proving they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time,” O’Donnell said. “Now they’re going to show they can walk one day and chew gum the next?” Pushing off the gaming debate by several months would allow House leaders to better gauge support for a Senate bill approved late in the session, legislative aides said. And it would also allow time to engage a consultant to better inform their decisions. The Senate legislation sought to compensate existing casino owners for a new competitor in Prince George’s by increasing the share of slots proceeds they may keep. House leaders have argued that they need a more objective look at the effect of a potential sixth site on other casinos, particularly those planned in neighboring Anne Arundel County and Baltimore. Miller and Busch have squabbled in recent weeks over the role the gaming bill played in the collapse of the revenue package on the session’s final night. Busch has argued that Senate leaders “slow-walked” budget negotiations to gain leverage on gambling. Miller has denied that was the case but said he and Busch had a deal that a gambling bill would pass along with several bills needed to put a budget agreement in place — something Busch denies. State elections officials indicated Tuesday that they probably could accommodate a statewide ballot measure on gambling in November if lawmakers wrap up work by mid-August. An agreement to consider the subject in a second special session would hardly guarantee the outcome. The developer of Maryland Live! Casino, which is scheduled to open in June in Anne Arundel, has argued against allowing another competitor in the Maryland market. Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) remains a strong proponent of a “high-end” casino at National Harbor, the mixed-use development on the banks of the Potomac River. In a letter to O’Malley and legislative leaders on Monday, Baker argued that “a sixth gaming site in Prince George’s County will bring more revenues to the state of Maryland than the current five sites, and more revenues are what we all want and need.” Not all lawmakers or constituents of Prince George’s are convinced, however. When the General Assembly crafted Maryland’s slots program in 2007, a majority of Prince George’s delegates opposed hosting a gaming site, arguing that slots would prey on the poor and breed more social ills. In a letter Tuesday to O’Malley, a group of religious leaders known as Family Faith Future said a casino remains “unwelcome and would be contrary to the wishes and beliefs of the vast majority of Prince George’s County citizens, businesses, religious institutions, elected officials and particularly voters.”

Maryland casinos pulled in $87.5 million in September

Maryland’s five casinos brought in $87.5 million in revenue in September, up 6 percent from a year ago, state officials reported. Monthly revenue increased in year-to-year comparisons at all of the casinos except Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, which was down one percent from September, 2014, its first full month of operation. While the year-to-year comparisons were up, revenue dropped sharply from August when the casinos took in $96.7 million. Overall, the September haul was the weakest month for casinos since February when casinos took in $83 million. That’s all the more suprising because September included the long Labor Day weekend. Casinos did better even in April when they took in $89 million, despite Horseshoe being forced to limit its hours because of a curfew imposed by the city after the riots related to Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. The biggest loser in September was Horseshoe, where table game revenue was down about $5 million from the previous month. Maryland Live felt the pinch with its slots, which dropped about $3 million from August totals.

Casino-for-hospital deal is the latest sweet talk from gambling interests

LAST SUMMER, WHEN Maryland state and local officials joined a university chancellor and health company executives in outlining a $600 million plan tobuild a critically needed hospital in Prince George’s County, no one breathed a word about gambling revenue. Now it turns out that the gaming industry, along with its legislative champions in Annapolis, was licking its chops. The gaming lobby saw the county’s dire shortage of decent health care as a point of leverage. Soon it was advancing the idea that the state’s $200 million portion of the deal might be financed by extending casino gambling in Maryland, and along with it adding, possibly, roulette and blackjack tables. The linkage might seem wildly implausible, not to mention opportunistic. But it’s been given currency, and a serious legislative push, by the state Senate president, Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), who has long been gaming’s greatest ally in the capital. “There will be revenue earmarked for a hospital system, not by choice, but I think it is the only possible way for [the hospital] to have any viability,” Mr. Miller told reporters recently. Inextricably linking more gambling revenue with the hospital’s construction is a cynical power play on the part of Mr. Miller, who has received substantial contributions from gaming interests over the years. And Rushern L. Baker III (D), the Prince George’s county executive, has rightly rejected coupling the two. “If there are no slots this year, the state still needs a revenue stream for the hospital,” Mr. Baker said. Still, Mr. Baker has so far been loath to oppose Mr. Miller outright, and plans are very much alive in Annapolis to use the county’s aspirations for decent health care as a means to build support for expanded gambling and a new casino, possibly at Rosecroft Raceway. Mr. Miller is undeterred by the prospect of a new casino at Rosecroft (or conceivably, at National Harbor, also in Prince George’s) cutting deeply into business and profits at another huge casino already in the pipeline in Anne Arundel County, less than an hour to the north near Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. His solution? Sweeten the pot for all casino operators. When voters approved five slot machine casinos in a statewide vote three years ago, Mr. Miller and other gambling advocates sold the proposal partly on the idea that they had gotten a great deal for the state, which would collect two- thirds of gambling proceeds, leaving just a third for casino operators. Now, to sell an expansion — and tougher competition — to the current casino owners, pro-gaming lawmakers suggest they might rewrite the law to let casinos keep more of the take. So much for the state’s great deal. From the outset, the benefits of gambling in Maryland have been massively oversold and the perils understated. Revenue projections were wildly overstated, while the pro-slots crowd has pooh-poohed the dangers of gambling addiction. Having failed to bail out schools, the horse-racing industry and the state’s budget deficit, gambling is now supposed to get a world-class hospital built. Don’t count on it. **More on this debate from PostOpinions:** The Post’s View: Say no to a casino at Rosecroft Raceway

Record $1.4 billion Powerball jackpot has players dreaming big

And make that another drumroll, please. By midmorning Jan. 11, the Powerball jackpot had hit $1.4 billion. No one won Saturday night’s big prize drawing, causing the pot to roll over and grow to what is now said to be the biggest jackpot in lottery history. That means the jackpot would translate into an $868 million cash value for Wednesday night’s drawing. And lottery officials said they expect the buying frenzy for tickets to continue in the next several days. The last ticket will be sold at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday. _[No Powerball grand-prize winners, but tickets sold in Va., Md. win $1 million]_ For many lottery ticket buyers, there was a sense of surprise Sunday morning when they awoke to find there was _still_ no winner after no one claimed Saturday night’s grand prize, which was roughly $949.8 million, and grew to $1.3 billion over the weekend. At the 24-hour Safeway grocery store off Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda, the overnight shift and early morning shoppers chatted Sunday about what they would do if they won the big jackpot. One group of Safeway employees — about two dozen workers — said they went in on a pool to buy the $2 tickets for the lottery. They won $11 in one of the recent drawings and rolled it over into more tickets. They’re realistic about their chances but still like to daydream. “When we win, we’re going to hide our faces when we go claim the prize and hold up the big check and have the pay to order line read, ‘Job openings at Bradley Safeway,’ ” said Stephen Hertslet, a night stocker for 37 years at the store who lives in Boyds, Md. _[You lost Powerball, so drown your sorrows in these past winners’ heartwarming tales]_ Officials at the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball, have said throughout last week that they’ve not seen anything like this in terms of the buying frenzy and the skyrocketing jackpot. Powerball is played in 44 states, as well as the District, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. In fact, signs aren’t prepared for a jackpot this big. The Associated Press reported that billboards in Texas and other parts of the country have to advertise the jackpot as $999 million because they’re not built to show billions. The jackpot has been rolling over since Nov. 4 when it started at $40 million. There hasn’t been a big winner since then, although there have been smaller winners of $1 million and $2 million. _[Powerball numbers drawn for $900M jackpot]_ On Saturday, there were several winners of $1 million prizes, including people who won in Maryland and Virginia. Those winners matched five of the Powerball numbers. No one matched five numbers in the District. The $1 million ticket in Maryland was sold at a Food Lion supermarket in Berlin on the Eastern Shore. In Virginia, the winning $1 million ticket was sold at a convenience store in Suffolk. There were also 15 tickets that won $50,000 in Saturday’s drawing. Some of those winners were in Reston, Dumfries and Ashburn. Saturday’s winning numbers were 16, 19, 32, 34 and 57, with a Powerball number of 13. The chances of winning the big, $1.3 billion jackpot —not too high. There is a 1 in 292 million shot at matching all of the numbers. And whoever wins the $1.3 billion jackpot doesn’t have to have their name in lights. There are six states, including Maryland, where winners can stay anonymous. In 2009, an 82-year-old man won a $144 million Powerball jackpot and even with a little party to celebrate his win, he didn’t come. He sent his attorney and chose to stay out of the public eye. _[D.C. Man, 82, wins Powerball but chooses to remain anonymous]_ His lawyer — David Wilmont — said the winner was a widower from Southeast Washington with 10 children and 47 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. At the time, Wilmont said the man had set up several trusts to help his heirs with education and health care, and one for philanthropy.

Ka-ching! Gambling addicts’ problems just got worse.

AS THE allure and glitz of Las Vegas arrive at the Potomac on Thursday in the form of MGM’s gigantic $1.4 billion casino at National Harbor, much of the buzz has been about all the lovely lucre for the gaming industry and Maryland. So spare a moment to consider the cost — to the tens of thousands of compulsive gamblers in and around the Washington area whose exposure to extreme risk just got a lot worse. An eye-opening article in the current issue of the Atlantic magazine describes the outsize marketing efforts by gaming companies to target problem gamblers, who consist of less than 20 percent of casino patrons but provide a hugely disproportionate share of the industry’s profits. From free limos, hotel suites, liquor and gifts, to easy credit and ingratiating hosts and hostesses, casinos know how to keep their best, and most vulnerable, customers coming back for more and more . . . and more. That’s long been the case in Nevada and the 39 other states that have also legalized gambling and opened their arms wide to casinos in the past four decades. What’s changed, and changed remarkably, are the astonishing technological advances — specifically, in electronic slot and video poker machines — that play on gamblers’ weaknesses and leave millions of them even more helpless to quit their addictions. As the Atlantic article puts it, “A significant portion of casino revenue now comes from a small percentage of customers, most of them likely addicts, playing machines that are designed explicitly to lull them into a trancelike state that the industry refers to as ‘continuous gaming productivity.’ ” That “trancelike state” is induced by ingenious high-tech methods, including features that coax players into believing they’d very nearly won (as they lost), and induce them to keep playing by making their losses occur more gradually. Through highly sophisticated techniques, which also include assiduous monitoring and tracking of big-time spenders by gaming companies, players are induced to go beyond their limits and their abilities to absorb losses. Even as Maryland has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue from casinos since they first opened in the state in 2010, the human price has mounted. Calls to the state’s gambling hotline — 800-GAMBLER — have climbed, and each year hundreds more people legally bar themselves from stepping inside a casino through the state’s Voluntary Exclusion Program (which is difficult to enforce). By law, a minuscule portion of Maryland’s casino revenue is diverted to a state fund that provides counselors trained to deal with gambling addiction and pays for research and public awareness of the problem. But unlike some other states, Maryland — which with six casinos is now among the nation’s most concentrated gaming markets — offers no free treatment programs. Lawmakers in Annapolis have been negligent. There are undeniable economic benefits from casinos for the state and, now, quite likely, for Prince George’s County, where MGM’s casino has created several thousand jobs. It would be foolish for lawmakers and the public to salivate over those while continuing to ignore the human toll. **Read more on this topic:** George F. Will: The government wants in on the fantasy sports action David Harrington: Opening doors in Prince George’s County David G. Schwartz: The NHL is coming to Las Vegas because America is now a casino nation Michael Gerson: Lotteries, payday lending, and the swindling of America’s poor