In yesterday's Baltimore Business Journal, there was a headline that got my attention, "Maryland Lottery taps research firm to study sales decline." I sure hope that they aren't going to spend a lot of money on this study because I can help them out in one word, GAMBLING, or another word, CASINOS, or another word, SLOTS. Really, they have to study the Lottery sales decline? Lottery sales are down 2.2% from $1.795 billion to $1.756 billion and mostly in Keno and Racetrack games. Any idea as to what these two Lottery games are most similar to in casinos..............you guessed it, slots.
For the same period, gambling in Maryland is up 27% over last year and at almost $830 million dollars in revenues. Two more casinos are expected to come online, one in Baltimore across from M&T Bank Stadium and another in PG County. I sure hope that the Maryland Lottery Commission figures that into their study. Overall, after taking into consideration the $39 million loss from the Lottery, the $830 million for FY '13 in revenues from gambling and $3.2 billion in new taxes; the State should be very well positioned from a revenue perspective.
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