It was a horrid month of October for the Maryland Casinos. The high performing casinos saw an unprecedented decline suddenly last month.
The Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) for all the state casinos dropped by a huge 8.9% on a year on year basis. The GGR has been posted as only $143.89m in October. This is an 8.9% decrease as compared to October last year.
The decline of the MGM National Harbor was quite devastating. It recorded around $59.86m. The GGR fell by 18.5% as it posted $13.5m lesser than what was posted a year ago. Horseshoe Baltimore had no better. The revenue of the venue declined by 9.1% and has posted $19.1m. The Live Casino made improvements in GGR which increased by 1.3% and reached $47.6m. Live Casino is one of the local casinos that have put the brave fight against the giant MGM. The recent upgrade of the facility and the venue might be considered as one of the few reasons for this better result.
The Gambling scene for Maryland does not really look quite impressive in the last four months. The GGR has fallen for four months and the dip in October is the worst. If the overall 2019 picture is seen then a drop of 0.8% can be observed.
The casinos are already paying the tax to the State. The state tax revenue is also being used differently. Almost 30% of the tax revenue goes to the Maryland Education Trust Fund. The recent fiscal year data suggests that almost $542.7m has been added. Lawmakers have a grand plan to revamp the education system using tax revenue. As per the plan, lawmakers are trying to build new schools or renovate existing ones. The overall plan could cost around $2.2b. The $125m from the Maryland Education Trust Fund could be used to repay the state-issued bonds as well. So far, the casinos have posted $589.7m so far reported Calvinayre.
Andrienne Jones, the House Speaker of Maryland said that the plan should be implemented as soon as possible. She said that the delay of every second can actually cost the delay of funding for the modernization of the schools. She also added that as a General Assembly they must act fast and build a school so that the students are not deprived of a better future. The Education Trust has been one of the most talking points in Maryland and the continuous efforts to upgrade the educational system and the environment is seen as a masterstroke by many. Even though the impacts of gambling can be debated, but many see this as the right approach to use the tax revenue collected from the casinos.
MGM National Harbor in Maryland opened close to three years ago. The MGM came with an idea to build one of the best casinos and was carrying the $1.4b price tag at that time. However, the local casinos had to pay a hefty price for it. Casinos like Live went back and started investing in their properties. These investments are working for them now as the financial results of Live getting better of the MGM.
