$1.4 Billion MGM Casino Opens In MarylandProperty Will Welcome In Gamblers At 11 P.M. Local Time |
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Maryland will see its sixth casino open on Thursday evening when the $1.4 billion MGM National Harbor begins taking wagers.
The casino has 125,000 square feet of gaming floor space, which includes 3,300 slot machines and 124 table games. There is also a 39-table poker room.
The first Maryland casino, Hollywood Casino Perryville, opened in late 2010. The state approved casino gambling in 2008. In 2012, voters approved live dealer table games and a sixth Las Vegas-style casino.
Construction began on MGM National Harbor in May 2014, and the opening was originally planned for August of this year. However, the original construction timeline turned out to be too aggressive.
Maryland’s casino gambling market was worth $1.1 billion in 2015, up from $931 million in 2014, according to state figures. The amount of gaming win puts the state as the 13th largest commercial casino gambling market in America. The entire U.S. commercial casino industry won $40.2 billion from gamblers in 2015, an all-time high.
Maryland’s poker market is worth close to $3 million a month, but it has been stagnant and is down overall so far in 2016. MGM National Harbor’s poker room will be the fourth in the state.
Back in 2012, MGM National Harbor had a price tag of $800 million, but later revisions to the plan gradually increased the investment.
Nearly 4,000 people will be working at the casino on a permanent basis.
The property is next door to Washington, D.C. on the banks of the Potomac River in Price George’s County. About 20 million people visit Washington, D.C. each year. About 40 million visit Las Vegas on an annual basis. Las Vegas has a gambling market worth about $6.4 billion annually.
MGM National Harbor should do well considering that, according to the most recent Census figures, the Washington, D.C. metro area has the highest median household income nationwide at around $93,000.
“This level of private investment is unprecedented in the region, and so is what we’ve built,” said Jim Murren, Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International. “MGM Resorts has long promoted global trade and travel—and MGM National Harbor will be a significant driver of both, strengthening Washington, D.C. as a tourist magnet.“
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