MGM National Harbor drives Maryland casino revenue record

MGM Resorts’ new National Harbor casino helped Maryland set a new casino revenue record in December.

Figures released Thursday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Agency show the state’s six casinos generated revenue of just under $133.5m in December, easily eclipsing the previous record of $104.4m set last May by the state’s other five casinos. The monthly total was up 40.2% year-on-year, but down 3.8% if you factor National Harbor out of the equation.

MGM’s National Harbor was full to capacity within one hour of its grand opening on December 8, and the property generated a healthy $41.9m in revenue ($24.3m slots, $17.6m table games) in its first 23 days of operation.

That wasn’t enough to usurp the state’s unquestioned market leader, Maryland Live, which reported $48m ($31m slots, $17m tables) for the month. However, this total was down 11.4% from December 2015 and 4.4% less than the property earned in November 2016.