Card Player – Just like in a game of poker, the state of Maryland has been reacting to the aggressive betting moves of others at its table.
Maryland is in a region full of various gaming expansion initiatives. Earlier this year, its first casino debuted live dealer table games. The move is expected to significantly strengthen the industry there. It also doesn’t hurt that Caesars Entertainment will open a casino in Baltimore and that MGM Resorts International and Penn National Gaming are battling it out for approval to build in Prince George’s County. In terms of gaming, Maryland will be busy for quite some time.
Card Player had the chance to speak with Stephen Martino, the Director of the State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, about the importance of these games, whether Maryland has been looking at possibly offering Internet poker, as well as what effect New Jersey winning its sports betting battle would have on Maryland and other states in the region at large.
Brian Pempus: Can you talk about how table games in the state have fared so far?
Stephen Martino: We think it has been a positive development for the Maryland casinos. I think it was passed with a couple of things in mind. One was creating economic development opportunity through the hiring of a a large number of people to work on them, and that’s what happened. Also, I think that the feeling, and I believe it was accurate, was that Maryland casinos were never going to be regionally competitive without table games. I think we had perfectly fine regional facilities that were slots-only, but there was still going to be a large number of people who would drive to states — West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware — and gamble because we didn’t have dealer-operated table games. The addition of those at three of our four casinos has changed that dynamic, and I think that we have been able to redirect some of that money back into the state of Maryland.
Our gaming industry is still in its infancy or maybe in its toddler stages now. We opened our first casino less than three years ago, and there has been rapid development of the gaming industry in the mid-Atlantic. It is a hyper-competitive gaming environment. I think to the extent that there was anything that kept us from being competitive…it was an issue that we wanted to address, and the legislature did last year. The question was taken to the voters and they voted in favor of getting table games and adding the additional license in Prince George’s County. So, I think that specific to table games, there were competitive concerns and obviously wanting to get this additional economic benefit in the form of the jobs it would create.
