Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Four and a half years after its opening, the Maryland Live! Casino is building a hotel.
This new $200 million project overlaps with the building of the MGM National Harbor casino and resort set to debut at the end of this year.
Dr. James Karmel, president and chief analyst of casino gaming consultancy group, Gaming Atlantic, said that the motivation behind Maryland Live’s expansion is not necessarily to compete with the new casino, but to continue to keep their existing players happy.
“Maryland Live is doing quite well holding on to sustaining its regional player base and I think their hotel strategy is to shore that up,”Karmel said. “It’s in part a strategy to compete with the resort casino that is going to be opening up in Prince George’s County, the National Harbor MGM property, but mainly I think it has to do with providing another perk for their high rollers.”
Maryland Live is not looking to fight with MGM National Harbor for international players, Karmel said.
“Maryland Live doesn’t have a huge strategy to bring in people from outside the region who might fly in for a few days,” Karmel said. “That is going to be the strategy of MGM National Harbor.”
Unlike Maryland Live, which is located in Hanover, Maryland, the new MGM facility will be hosted in a tourist location.
“The MGM National harbor is set up by its location on the Potomac right across from Washington to be not just a gaming destination, but a gaming and tourist destination,” Karmel said. “I don’t think Maryland Live’s hotel is going to be oriented that way- that is to bring in a new class of tourists.”
Karmel said that even if the Maryland Live casino loses up to 10 percent of its customers, it won’t suffer such a hit.
“Maryland Live has been so successful in the four and a half years that it has been open by establishing a regional player base that it can actually afford to absorb a loss,” Karmel said.
Even so, Karmel said that the additional of the hotel is a safety precaution against too much player loss.
“It’s an attempt to at least minimize how many many players they might lose by adding an amenity that’s not dissimilar from what the MGM National Harbor property is going to be able to offer,” Karmel said.
Construction on the Hanover property is now underway and is set to be completed by 2018.
(photo: Maryland Live!)
