Maryland’s six casinos closed out 2018 with a modest gaming revenue gain, although Horseshoe Casino Baltimore’s ongoing decline showed no sign of abating.
Figures released Monday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Agency show statewide casino gaming revenue hitting $148.4m in the month of December, a 5.2% improvement over the same month last year and $8.4m better than the market reported in November 2018.
Total gaming revenue for calendar 2018 came to $1.746b, up 8.1% from 2017’s $1.614b. Total slots revenue hit just under $1.1b in 2018, up from just under $1b in 2017. Table game revenue was up 6.3% year-on-year to a little less than $654m.
The state’s market-leading venue, MGM Resorts’ National Harbor, opened its doors in December 2016, making 2018 the first year in which proper apples-to-apples comparisons apply. National Harbor had a solid December, rising nearly 6% to $59.9m, while its annual haul was up 15.8% to $705m.
Perpetual runner-up Cordish Gaming’s Live! Casino & Hotel saw its December revenue nudge up 6% to nearly $50.1m, while its annual take rose 5.5% to $575.3m.
Horseshoe Casino Baltimore was down 7.2% to $22.2m in December, which sounds bad until you realize that November’s decline was 14.2%. And if Caesars Entertainment is really into focusing on the positives of these negatives, the Shoe’s annual revenue of $260m was a mere 4.2% below 2017’s take.
Hollywood Casino Perryville’s December was up 9.2% to $6.3m, while its annual result rose $1.3m to $75.6m. Rocky Gap was up 17% to $4.4m in December while its 2018 total improved by less than $1m to $54.7m.
Ocean Downs shot up 45.2% in December to $5.4m, thanks to the fact that the property’s gaming tables earned a mere $54k in December 2017, the month they first appeared. For the year as a whole, Ocean Downs revenue jumped by nearly one-quarter to $75.8m, of which $7.8m came via those shiny new tables.
