
Maryland Live is once again the top casino in their state after the Arundel Mills resort generated more gaming revenue during the month of February than its new rival MGM nationwide Harbor.
Maryland Live, billed as the family friendly casino compared to MGM nationwide Harbor, saw the gambling money that is most come through its doors during February.
Collectively, the state’s six gambling enterprises pulled in $128.7 million in gross gaming win, Maryland’s second-best all-time performance. The record mark arrived in December after the grand opening of National Harbor led up to a victory of $133.5 million.
Maryland Live’s revenue totaled $46.29 million month that is last narrowly edging MGM’s property that sits simply outside Washington, DC, at $45.77 million. The two casinos represented the lion’s share of gaming income, with Horseshoe Baltimore coming in a distant third with $22 million.
Three smaller gambling that is regional, Hollywood Casino Perryville, Rocky Gap Casino Resort, and the Casino at Ocean Downs, posted a combined $14.6 million.
The Cordish Companies, the parent organization of Live that is headquartered in Maryland, credited its ‘family approach’ for the home retaking the spot that is top. In a statement the group additionally says being locally owned permits it to provide a better experience to customers, in what’s undoubtedly a slight jab at MGM.
Mixed Outcomes
The February gambling report represents a 38 percent increase on the same month in 2016. Casinos took $35.4 million additional money through the month that is shortest of the season, but the info also highlights plenty of issues for Maryland gaming.
Excluding MGM’s $1.4 billion resort, gambling was actually down more than 11 per cent. And while Maryland Live is championing its victory, in truth the casino amassed 14.3 percent less revenue year-over-year february.
February Maryland Live’s $46.29 million is down $7.72 million compared to last. And conditions couldn’t were riper for strong revenues, as the month ended up being one of the warmest on record.
Since MGM announced its plans to build nationwide Harbor, Maryland Live has been scrambling to make sure its property stayed competitive up against the behemoth outside of DC in Oxford Hill. Live and nationwide Harbor are about 35 miles aside, but both are competing for the wealthy DC and Northern Virginia demographic.
Maryland Live announced the construction of the 17-story hotel tower with 310 guest spaces summer that is last. MGM National Harbor offers 308 hotel rooms.
National Harbor Underwater?
MGM’s casino that is latest to open in the US had been downright packed during its starting month. The resort asked would-be people to stay away unless that they had a reservation.
Just 90 days later, excitement and enthusiasm has seemingly calmed.
A nightly stay at the hotel ran between $399 and $599 in the opening weeks. But midweek prices are now since low as $229, though weekends are nevertheless in the range that is prior.
MGM likely isn’t too focused on the February gaming report. While Live continues to fret within the competition, MGM CEO Jim Murren has over and over stated that the house seeks become a destination resort for not only gamblers but also visitors towards the country’s money.
Casino Bus Crash Kills Four, Charter Safety Concerns Continue
A casino bus crash in Mississippi has killed four passengers and injured 40 more, seven critically.
A casino bus crash in Mississippi presumably became stuck on a railroad track, and tragedy struck whenever an approaching train collided with the charter vehicle. (Image: Kevin McGill/Associated Press)
The event occurred in Biloxi after the bus reportedly became stuck while trying to get a cross train tracks. Moments later, a freight train traveling at increases to 45 MPH collided with the bus and forced it some 300 legs before coming to a stop.
According to reports that are local the coach was touring regional casinos in Mississippi and Louisiana.
At the time associated with the crash, the coach ended up being traveling from the Hollywood Gulf Coast Casino in Bay St. Louis to the Boomtown Casino in Biloxi. That is about an hour’s drive east.
The excursion that is weeklong organized by a senior citizens’ center in Texas. While investigators say it’s not straight away clear if the bus incurred mechanical problems, the location where the accident happened has road signs warning motorists of low ground clearance.
The names associated with victims, and whether the driver was one of the fatalities, wasn’t released.
Charter Gambling
The casino bus crash comes not as much as five months after a California gambling trip ended in tragedy. In October, 13 passengers aboard a trip bus had been killed after the driver slammed to the straight back of an 18-wheeler semi-truck on Interstate 10 near Palm Springs.
In that incident, passengers paid around $30 for round-trip fare and free slot money from Los Angeles to a remote casino near Salton City called Red Earth.
Tour organizations and regional casinos usually reach agreements where gambling establishments provide slot money to people arriving on certain charters and spend the bus company a tiny per-customer stipend.
This is why busses like the one involved in the Palm Springs accident drive lengths that are great passing multiple gambling enterprises into the process, to reach at a destination like Red Earth.
Growing Concern
Following fall that is last tragedy in California, the nationwide Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that the rise of casino bus accidents was a severe concern to the federal agency that is tasked with investigating civil accidents.
In mid-January, a Greyhound motorcoach crashed in San Jose, California, and killed two passengers. But fatalities aboard chartered busses are still relatively uncommon compared to other modes of transportation.
In line with the NTSB, in 2015 just 49 bus passengers were killed in highway accidents. Passenger cars and trucks that are light vans accounted for over 22,400 deaths.
The NTSB is in Mississippi to investigate this week’s crash. Straight Back home at its Washington, DC, headquarters, the agency is attempting to determine if more oversight that is stringent of charter companies is necessary.
In 2013, the NTSB publicly scolded inspectors during the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for failing to detect clear and safety that is significant on busses that passed inspections.
‘Our investigators discovered that most of the time, the poor performing company ended up being on FMCSA’s radar for violations, but was permitted to continue operating . . . until they had crashes that are deadly’ the NTSB said at the time.
Former US Secretary of the Interior Salazar Warns Connecticut Over Satellite Casino
Kenneth Salazar, US Secretary to the Interior under Barack Obama, has warned Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy over ‘legal risks’ in regards to the state’s proposition to permit the construction of the casino that is tribal sovereign tribal lands.
Ken Salazar, former US Secretary to your Interior, now MGM consultant, believes that Connecticut will struggle to receive federal approval for a brand new casino deal with the Mohegan and Mashantucket tribes. (Image: Politico.com)
Salazar, that is a paid up consultant for MGM Resorts Overseas, informed the governor that the proposed ‘satellite’ casino could jeopardize the state’s revenue-sharing agreements with all the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans, which run the Foxwoods and Mohegan gambling enterprises in south Connecticut, that could cost their state billions in the run that is long.
MGM is hopeless to halt Connecticut’s plans to establish a casino just 13 kilometers south of this MGM Springfield, currently under construction throughout the border in Massachusetts.
The Connecticut casino has been conceived solely as a way to blunt MGM Springfield’s competitive edge contrary to the Connecticut casino sector also to protect Connecticut jobs.
MGM has made no secret of the fact that it expects a big portion of footfall because cleopatra free slot machines of its own new casino to come from Connecticut residents.
Borderline Legal
The satellite casino is controversial plan because the Connecticut legislature will have to pass a law permitting the 2 tribes, understood collectively as MMCT, to run the state’s first ever casino outside tribal lands. The tribes will be the entities that are only by legislation to operate casinos in the state.
MGM has sued Connecticut on the grounds that this is unconstitutional and in violation of the Commerce Clause because it bars rivals that are out-of-state competing to build up gambling enterprises within the state, discriminating, says MGM, in favor of the 2 tribes.
The casino giant also attempted to obtain an amendment added to a federal defense bill that would have prohibited Native American tribes from operating casinos within their home state outside their reservations nonetheless it was scuttled by vigilant congressman from Connecticut.
However the question of legality lingers, and week that is last Malloy requested that the state AG George Jepsen prepare an official opinion in the legal ramifications of the proposal and to assess the probability of MGM successfully blocking it into the courts.
Substantial Danger
Salazar’s intervention on behalf of MGM, then, is well-timed. Writing in an open letter addressed to Malloy, dated March 7, he writes that the 25 percent revenue share which has existed between the state as well as the tribes for just two decades will likely be threatened, regardless of the fact that MMCT has proposed amendments to the agreements that will make sure the re payments to your state will never stop.
‘Under federal law … amendments to a gaming that is tribal need approval by the U.S. Department of Interior, which I led for five years throughout the Obama management,’ wrote Salazar.
‘Based on that experience ( as well as on my work on Native American legal things), i really believe there is a risk that is substantial the tribe’s proposed amendments wouldn’t normally receive the requisite approval, by which case Connecticut’s entitlement to the 25-percent revenue stream would likely terminate.’
AN MMCT spokesman was unmoved by the articles regarding the letter. ‘MGM is willing to pay anyone and everyone to stop our task from going forward because they know our proposal will probably keep revenue and jobs in Connecticut,’ he stated.
Glenn Straub Ups Attacks on Atlantic City, Says New Jersey ‘Rapes’ Businesses
Glenn Straub states when you come to New Jersey, business owners ‘have to take all your clothing off’ and enable their state to take advantage that is full. ‘They don’t understand how exactly to not rape you,’ he opined.
Glenn Straub (middle), seen here at a Casino Control Commission meeting last month, is a new comer to Atlantic City, but that doesn’t mean the Florida-based businessman will probably play by New Jersey’s rules. (Image: Atlantic City Primetime)
Yep, Straub just went there. The developer that is florida-based officially eliminated any politically correct buffer he might have had in describing Atlantic City. Chatting using the Associated Press, Straub lambasted the government and casino regulators in the Garden State.
Asked why he isn’t ready to play by the rules which have been set forth, such as taking part in the program that is PILOT re payment in lieu of taxes), Straub replied, ‘I’d be broke. They’re trying to make me do what my predecessors did.’
Straub purchased the Revel that is shuttered Atlantic, a resort that cost $2.4 billion to construct, for $82 million in bankruptcy court. But since his acquisition nearly two years ago, the businessman has engaged in a series of fights with hawaii’s Casino Control Commission (CCC) and Atlantic City’s regional leaders.
Straub argues he doesn’t require a casino license since he’s likely to be leasing his gambling flooring to a third-party that is currently in the act of obtaining a CCC permit.
But that does not stay glued to Atlantic City laws. Morris Bailey received a license on his behalf for their Resorts Casino despite also hiring a vendor to operate the gaming area.
Layers of Bureaucracy
Straub’s frustrations aren’t out of the norm with regards to business that is doing Atlantic City. The beachfront gambling town is infamous for the complicated regulatory environment.
The Casino Control Commission, Division of Gaming Enforcement, and Casino Reinvestment Development Authority are all involved in licensing properties, but owners that are incoming often confused as to which agency is actually in control. Muddying the process is the undeniable fact that the city it self is responsible for building inspections and infrastructure jobs.
Mayor Don Guardian (R) is attempting to help owners navigate the complex burdens. The controversial mayor who is at the center of this state’s takeover for the regional government says he regularly meets with owners who have invested at least $1 million in the town.