This week’s casino news starts off in Maryland, then moves down to San Jose, and finally finishes off in British Columbia. Let’s take a trip around this week’s key casino and gaming headlines:
MGM National Harbor Sees Small Slowdown
Since its debut, the MGM National Harbor has been destroying the competition in Maryland where the state shows that its six casinos generated $134.5 million in September. That is up 38.6 percent from last year, but the growth at MGM National Harbor appears to have stopped – at least for one month. National Harbor brought in $49.3 million, which is still a very healthy amount, but it is a decline from the August record of $52.9 million that they posted. Meanwhile Live! was in second place with $47 million, which was also down 13 percent from last September. This is as close as the competition has been to MGM National Harbor since it opened, and while it is close, this is probably as good as it will get for the other casinos. The biggest drop of the month went to Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, which dropped 22.1 percent to $21 million. The big winner is the state of Maryland, which is racking up the revenue thanks to MGM National Harbor, but everyone will be watching closely in the coming months to see if this was just a one-month decline or a new trend as the other casinos look to catch up.
Gaming Comes To Richmond
Delta, a city just south of Richmond in British Columbia, is going to be getting a new entertainment facility that will include a number of table games and slots, along with restaurants and other amenities. It will also include a hotel with a conference centre. Gateway Casinos and Entertainment is set to launch a project that will bring about 700 new jobs to the area along with $70 million to the economy. Gateway runs 26 complexes across the country and received permission to simply move the Newton Community Gaming Centre that is located in Surrey. One last minor hurdle for them is that they’ll have to have a complete redesign to pass in for approval.
Gateway is going to lease the site from Ron Toigo, who owns the Delta Town and Country Inn, which is where the site is located. He believes this location is the perfect place for a casino facility. This should be quite the boost for Richmond, which has already received about $153 million over the last 10 years from the River Rock Casino Resort.
New-Look Bay 101 Casino Unveiled
There’s a fresh, new place to play in San Jose: the Bay 101 Casino. The new outlet has opened up in San Jose, California, after undergoing a transformation of about $53 million. It is now located on North First Street, which is close to Casino M8trix, the other card room in San Jose.
Bay 101 was originally known as Sutter’s, which opened up in 1929, but went through a rebranding in 1994 and then became Bay 101. It had to move from its location on Bering Drive because of an expiring lease and now it will feature 49 gaming tables with card games of all types. They have plans to expand even beyond their new capacity as they’re asking San Jose city hall for 10 more tables. Currently, 49 is all that they’re allowed.
Bay 101 will also be the new home of the Shooting Star poker tournament, which is well known in San Jose. The 5000-square-foot complex features all sorts of other types of entertainment and amenities, including The Province, a highly anticipated Asian-fusion restaurant.