Maryland Casinos get Big 8.4% Spike in June

Looking around the United States, many analysts see an increasingly saturated casino market, with multiple states experiencing gaming revenue decreases. But one certainly can’t say the same about Maryland because their gaming revenue increased by a substantial amount in June.

Maryland casinos pulled in $72.05 million last month, which is up from last June’s $66.49 million haul. The $72 million generated in June is pretty impressive when you consider that the state only has four casinos.

Maryland Live carries the banner for the Free State after earning $56.5 million in June – up about 10% from last year. It’s no surprise that Maryland Live has such a big chunk of the state’s market since they have over 4,300 slot machines and 122 table games.

Hollywood Casino Perryville is next up on the list since they made $7 million last month. Unfortunately, this is down 10% from June of 2013, or $771,856 in of cash. The Casino at Ocean Downs was almost exactly break-even after seeing a 0.1% decrease in June. Ocean Downs’ 800 slot machines pulled in about $4.8 million.

Rocky Gap Casino Resort, which opened in May of 2013, was finally able to compare year-to-year months. Rocky Gap’s 577 slots and 16 table games generated $3.7 million last month, which is a whopping 50% increase from the previous June.

From an overall perspective, Maryland casinos have been a huge success. In 2013, their casino industry experienced the second-biggest revenue jump from the previous year at 98%. Only Ohio was better as its young casino market hit 149% in growth.

Based on the way things are going, it’s little surprise that expansion is on the way in Maryland. The $442 million Horseshoe Casino will open in Baltimore at the end of August. Additionally, MGM National Harbor grabbed the state’s final license and plans on opening some time in 2016.

The big question now is if Maryland can succeed where other states have struggled. Many markets throughout the US initially opened to success, only to peak and begin a downslide amid increasing competition. Because of this, Moody’s has issued a negative outlook on the US land-based casino industry moving forward.

Moody’s states that there’s “a weaker demand, fixed nature of expenses and oversupply” of gaming establishments in the US. Despite growth in the overall American economy since the beginning of 2013, casino revenue has remained largely stagnant over the same period.