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.