Three casinos in Maryland are expected to begin offering sports betting to the general public this week, which would mark the official start of legal wagering in the state.
While online sports betting isn’t anticipated to legally launch in Maryland until some point in 2022, state regulators have recently been overseeing “controlled demonstrations” of in-person wagering at several casinos that allow invited guests to test-drive the operations.
A spokesperson for the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency told Covers on Wednesday that, pending the successful completion of their controlled demonstrations, three casinos in the state are now set to start offering sports wagering this week to all bettors 21 and older.
MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill is poised to begin general sports betting on its property on Thursday, while Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore and Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover are in line to do the same on Friday.
A year and change
The beginning of betting by the general public at those three casinos comes after a majority of Maryland voters approved sports wagering in the state in November 2020. Gov. Larry Hogan signed sports-betting legislation into law in May and has recently been pushing to get sportsbooks licensed and operational.
Maryland’s legal sports betting model allows for up to 60 online sportsbook licenses to be issued, as well as 47 licenses for brick-and-mortar books. Retail licensees who want to take mobile wagers would need to apply for a separate online wagering license.
The state’s sports-betting law has 17 specific entities named in it too, such as the Baltimore Ravens’ stadium and the three casinos opening their wagering operations to the public on Thursday and Friday. In-person sports betting licenses for those 17 locations are being addressed first by regulators.
The three casinos set to start taking action this week have operating partners for their sports-betting businesses. MGM National Harbor is coupled with BetMGM, the Horseshoe with Caesars Sportsbook, and Live! with FanDuel Sportsbook.
Hollywood Casino in Perryville and Ocean Downs Casino in Berlin are also poised to start sports wagering on their properties soon. So too are Riverboat on the Potomac in Colonial Beach, Va. (its gambling facilities are in Maryland) and Long Shot’s in Frederick, two off-track betting locations that were awarded licenses on Wednesday by the state’s Sports Wagering Application Review Commission.
All four venues will need to successfully complete controlled demonstrations of their sports-betting operations before launching retail wagering.
