Maryland Live Back over the Top After Using Wind Out of MGM Nationwide Harbor’s Sails

Maryland Live is once again the casino that is top the state after the Arundel Mills resort generated more gaming revenue during the thirty days of February than its new rival MGM National Harbor.
Maryland Live, billed as the family friendly casino in comparison to MGM nationwide Harbor, saw the gambling money that is most come through its doors during February.
Collectively, their 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 to a win 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 earnings, with Horseshoe Baltimore coming in a distant third with $22 million.
Three smaller gambling that is regional, Hollywood Casino Perryville, Rocky Gap Casino Resort, additionally the Casino at Ocean Downs, posted a combined $14.6 million.
The Cordish Companies, the parent organization of reside that is headquartered in Maryland, credited its ‚family approach‘ for the property retaking the spot that is top. In a statement the group additionally states being locally owned permits it to provide a better experience to customers, in what’s definitely a small jab at MGM.
Mixed Results
The February gambling report represents a 38 percent increase on the month that is same 2016. Casinos took $35.4 million more cash throughout the month that is shortest of the season, but the data also highlights plenty of concerns for Maryland gaming.
Excluding MGM’s $1.4 billion resort, gambling was actually down more than 11 percent. And while Maryland Live is championing its February triumph, in truth the casino amassed 14.3 % less revenue year-over-year.
Maryland Live’s $46.29 million is down $7.72 million compared to final February. And conditions could not have already been riper for strong revenues, as the month had been one of the warmest on record.
Since MGM announced its intends to build nationwide Harbor, Maryland Live has been scrambling to make sure its property stayed competitive from the behemoth outside of DC in Oxford Hill. Live and National Harbor are about 35 miles apart, but both are competing for the wealthy DC and Northern Virginia demographic.
Maryland Live announced the construction of a 17-story hotel tower with 310 guest rooms last summer. MGM National Harbor offers 308 hotel rooms.
Nationwide Harbor Underwater?
MGM’s casino that is latest to open in the US was downright packed during its starting month. The resort asked would-be visitors to stay away unless that they had a reservation.
Just 3 months later, excitement and enthusiasm has seemingly calmed.
Into the opening days, a nightly stay at the hotel ran between $399 and $599. But midweek rates are now since low as $229, though weekends are still in the range that is prior.
MGM likely isn’t too worried about the gaming report february. While Live continues to fret over the competition, MGM CEO Jim Murren has over and over repeatedly stated that the home seeks become a destination resort for not just gamblers but also visitors towards the country’s capital.
Casino Bus Crash Kills Four, Charter Safety Concerns Continue
A casino coach crash in Mississippi has killed four passengers and injured 40 more, seven critically.
A casino bus crash in Mississippi allegedly 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 coach reportedly became stuck while wanting to get a cross train tracks. Moments later, a freight train traveling at increases to 45 MPH collided with the bus and pressed it some 300 legs before coming to an end.
According to local reports, the coach was touring regional casinos in Mississippi and Louisiana.
The bus was traveling from the Hollywood Gulf Coast Casino in Bay St. Louis to the Boomtown Casino in Biloxi at the time of the crash. That is about an hour’s drive east.
The excursion that is weeklong organized by a senior citizens‘ center in Texas. The area where the accident happened has road signs warning drivers of low ground clearance while investigators say cleopatra 2 slot machine free play it’s not immediately clear whether the bus incurred mechanical problems.
The names regarding the victims, and whether the driver was one of the fatalities, wasn’t released.
Charter Gambling
The casino bus crash comes significantly less than five months after a California gambling trip ended in tragedy. In October, 13 passengers aboard a trip coach were killed after the driver slammed into the 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 cash from Los Angeles to a remote casino near Salton City called Red Earth.
Tour companies and regional casinos usually reach agreements where gambling establishments provide slot money to passengers arriving on certain charters and spend the bus company a tiny per-customer stipend.
This is why busses like the one active in the Palm Springs accident drive lengths that are great passing multiple gambling enterprises in the process, to reach at a destination like Red Earth.
Growing Concern
Following last fall’s tragedy in California, the National 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 people. But fatalities aboard chartered busses remain relatively rare contrasted 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 fatalities.
The NTSB is in Mississippi to investigate this week’s crash. Straight Back home at its Washington, DC, headquarters, the agency is trying to determine if more oversight that is stringent of charter companies is necessary.
In 2013, the NTSB publicly scolded inspectors during the Federal engine Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for failing to detect clear and significant safety problems on busses that passed inspections.
‚Our investigators found that in many cases, the indegent doing company had been on FMCSA’s radar for violations, but ended up being allowed to continue operating . . . until they had crashes that are deadly‘ the NTSB stated 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‘ regarding the state’s proposal to permit the construction of a tribal casino outside sovereign tribal lands.
Ken Salazar, former US Secretary towards the Interior, now MGM consultant, believes that Connecticut will struggle to receive federal approval for a new casino handle the Mohegan and Mashantucket tribes. (Image: Politico.com)
Salazar, that is a paid up consultant for MGM Resorts International, informed the governor that the proposed ’satellite‘ casino could jeopardize the state’s revenue-sharing agreements aided by the Mashantucket Pequots and Mohegans, which run the Foxwoods and Mohegan gambling enterprises in south Connecticut, which could price their state billions in the long run.
MGM is desperate to halt Connecticut’s plans to just establish a casino 13 miles south associated with the MGM Springfield, presently under construction across the border in Massachusetts.
The Connecticut casino has been conceived solely as a method 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 for its own casino that is new come from Connecticut residents.
Borderline Legal
The satellite casino is controversial plan because the Connecticut legislature will have to pass a law permitting the two tribes, understood collectively as MMCT, to operate the state’s first ever casino outside tribal lands. The tribes would be the only entities permitted by law to operate casinos in the state.
MGM has sued Connecticut on the grounds that this is unconstitutional plus in violation of the Commerce Clause because it bars out-of-state rivals from competing to build up gambling enterprises within the state, discriminating, claims MGM, in benefit of the two tribes.
The casino giant even attempted to obtain an amendment added up to a federal defense bill that would have forbidden indigenous American tribes from running gambling enterprises inside their home state outside their reservations but it ended up being scuttled by vigilant congressman from Connecticut.
However the question of legality lingers, and week that is last Malloy requested that hawaii AG George Jepsen prepare a formal viewpoint on the legal ramifications of the proposal and to assess the odds of MGM successfully blocking it into the courts.
Substantial Danger
Salazar’s intervention on behalf of MGM, then, is well-timed. Composing in an open letter addressed to Malloy, dated March 7, he writes that the 25 % revenue share who has existed between the state as well as the tribes for 2 decades is threatened, regardless of the fact that MMCT has proposed amendments towards the agreements that could make sure the payments to your state wouldn’t normally stop.
‚Under federal law … amendments to a gaming that is tribal require approval by the U.S. Department of Interior, which I led for five years throughout the Obama management,‘ wrote Salazar.
‚Based on that experience ( and on my work on Native American legal things), in my opinion there is a risk that is substantial the tribe’s proposed amendments wouldn’t normally receive the requisite approval, in which situation Connecticut’s entitlement to the 25-percent income stream would probably terminate.‘
AN MMCT spokesman was unmoved by the contents associated with the letter. ‚MGM is willing to pay for anyone and everyone else to stop our project from moving ahead because they know our proposal is going to keep revenue and jobs in Connecticut,‘ he said.
Glenn Straub Ups Attacks on Atlantic City, Says New Jersey ‚Rapes‘ Organizations
Glenn Straub says once you come to nj-new Jersey, business owners ‚have to take all your clothes off‘ and enable their state to take full benefit. ‚They don’t understand how to maybe not rape you,‘ he opined.
Glenn Straub (middle), seen here at a Casino Control Commission meeting last month, is not used to Atlantic City, but it doesn’t mean the Florida-based businessman is going to 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. Speaking with all the Associated Press, Straub lambasted the national government and casino regulators in the Garden State.
Asked why he isn’t prepared to play by the guidelines that have been set forth, such as playing the PILOT program ( re payment instead of taxes), Straub responded, ‚I’d be broke. They’re trying to produce me do exactly what my predecessors did.‘
Straub purchased the shuttered Revel Atlantic City, 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 their state’s Casino Control Commission (CCC) and Atlantic City’s local leaders.
Straub argues he doesn’t desire a casino license since he’s likely to be leasing their gambling floor to a third-party that is currently in the process of obtaining a CCC permit.
But that does not abide by Atlantic City laws. Morris Bailey received a license on his behalf for their Resorts Casino despite also hiring a vendor to run the video 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 its complicated environment that is regulatory.
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 really in control. Muddying the method may be the undeniable fact that the town it self is responsible for building inspections and infrastructure tasks.
Mayor Don Guardian (R) was trying to help owners navigate the burdens that are complex. The controversial mayor who is during the center associated with the state’s takeover associated with neighborhood federal government says he regularly meets with owners who have invested at least $1 million in the town.