Casino

Maryland's casinos will be allowed to open 24 hours a day under new regulations approved Thursday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission that also relaxed limits on ATMs and lending to gamblers in the facilities. With the advent of full-scale casino gambling in Maryland after voters approved table games in the November election, the commission is updating the regulatory regime and relaxing some restrictions. The changes also added new rules, including some governing junkets that casinos provide to high-rolling gamblers.

Maryland Live casino in Anne Arundel County announced plans to begin operating 24-hours per day starting Dec. 27. The move, made legal by the passing of Question 7, must first be approved by the state. Casino officials believe they'll get the OK next week. Robert J. Norton, president and general manager of the casino, said in a news release that the casino continues to prepare for the arrival of 150 live table games early next year. Passage of the referrendum spurred Maryland Live to hire 1,200 additional employees; about 140 of them will be in place by Dec. 27 to handle the expanded hours.

Two Anne Arundel County lawmakers want to protect millions in expected gambling money from being spent in neighborhoods away from the state's largest casino. Their proposed bill would siphon Anne Arundel's local impact grants, which are estimated to total $117 million over the next five years, into a separate account dedicated to improvements near Arundel Mills mall. "I'm trying to hold ourselves to a standard so we can say to the public that we got this money, and this is what we spent it on," said Councilman Peter I. Smith, a Democrat from Severn whose district includes Maryland Live Casino in Hanover.

Why are all these casinos being built with all the unemployed people living here in the United States? Sure, the housing may be on the upswing, but that doesn't say or mean that more people have more money. Yes, casinos may be competing with another, but more casinos will make more people poorer. Yes, a few might get rich, but how many of these people will know when to say, "Stop. " More casinos will bring more gangs and add to the population in the gangs already here. Who pays for these casinos?

Maryland's three casinos generated $43.1 million in November, about half of which went to the state's education trust fund. Maryland Live in Anne Arundel, owned by Baltimore developer David Cordish, continues to generate a majority of that revenue, as it has since opening in June. Its 4,750 slot machines brought in $34.4 million, or about $241.16 per machine each day. Hollywood Casino in Perryville brought in a total of $5.4 million from 1,500 machines ($120.48 per machine each day)

Penn National Gaming was a $44 million loser in its bid to block expanded gambling in last month's election, but it came out on top in terms of its spending locally. Get the Facts - Vote No on 7, the Pennsylvania-based casino company's ballot committee, spent almost three-quarters of its money in Maryland in Maryland's most expensive campaign ever. Penn National and a rival coalition led by MGM Entertainment together spent almost $95 million in the fight over Question 7, which opened the way for table games and a new casino in Prince George's County.

Why are all these casinos being built with all the unemployed people living here in the US? Sure the housing may be on the upswing, but that doesn't say/mean that more people have more money. Yes, casinos may be competing with another, but more casinos will make more people poorer. Yes, a few might get rich, but how many of these people will know when to say "quit/stop"? More casinos will bring more gangs and add to the population in the gangs already here. Who pays for these casinos?

With a few reports from smaller campaign committees still not filed late Tuesday, the tally of money spent on this year's battle royale over gambling expansion in Maryland has passed $93 million.  With a final surge, the winning proponents of table games and a new casino in Prince George's County surpassed their opponent -- Penn National Gaming -- in the last weeks of the campaign. The deadline for filing was midnight.  For Maryland Jobs and Schools, the proponents' main committee, reported $19.2 million in spending in the final weeks -- most of its supplied by MGM Resort International.

Dorsey Nicola was shaking the dice and staring down the green felt, where chips were stacked like miniature skyscrapers and multiplying. The craps table was hot last week as a half-dozen students lined the perimeter and Nicola kept throwing sixes. The winnings went ignored in this windowless room tucked into a back corner of an Anne Arundel Community College satellite campus. Students glued their attention instead to the dealer's clever tricks to coax tips from players and calculate payouts, crucial skills for someone hoping to secure a job in the state's newly expanded gambling industry.

A proposed new bus route would ferry passengers from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport to the Maryland Live Casino and elsewhere through the Hanover neighborhoods of Anne Arundel County. Money generated by the casino and sent to Anne Arundel County government would pay for the new route connecting the airport and its train station to the Arundel Mills mall. Preliminary plans were unveiled Thursday night to a committee overseeing how to spend Anne Arundel's $15 million annual cut of gambling money.