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Sports Gaming Boon For Casinos Bust For Others?



By: Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor

 It is 12:30pm on a Sunday at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.  Business is good on the casino floor with poker tables full with gamblers who have, and will, be there for hours.  It is dreary out, and the brightly lit interior, the hotel lobby, stand in contrast to the foggy Potomac River just outside.  The MGM sits on a bluff overlooking the river, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge linking Maryland and Virginia.  It is in Prince Georges County, a county ravaged by crime, and economically challenged.  The county council, and the state of Maryland pushed hard for the resort property adjacent to the upscale National Harbor area.  The bald eagles nesting atop channel marker two just offshore seem unaware.

 As busy as the casino is with locals, and a few busloads of gamers, it may be busier.  That’s if the sports gaming case going to the U.S. Supreme Court early next year rules in favor of breaking the monopoly of the Las Vegas sports betting stranglehold.  This is a non-partisan issue, and mainly breaks along a cultural, moral divide.  The idea of Las Vegas sports betting is that it is singular, and easily monitored.  Las Vegas has had no sport franchises up to this point; a fear of collusion, and just being too close for the comfort of major sport league officials.  That has changed.  The NHL is in town with the Golden Knights playing at the T-Mobile Arena just off the Strip.  The Oakland Raiders are likely to be the hometown NFL team starting in 2020 in a grand venue just east of the Strip.  Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner is excited.  He sees hockey as less susceptible to corruption from the gambling centers just down the way.  The NFL is comfortable as well.  Corruption from gambling interests in the mecca of sport gambling minimal.  This raises the point…why not everywhere then?


New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) thinks that way.  Hence the Supreme Court case.  If Christie, and the American Gambling Association, which operates as an advocate for casino owners, suppliers, and industry allies, get there way there will be sports gaming in New Jersey.  This will open doors for any state to do the same.  Including Maryland, and the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel.  It will be a boon.  The floor will be jammed.  The wide-screen televisions that are everywhere around the floor are tuned into NFL pre-game shows on this noon-time Sunday.  They are watched casually.  With gaming they will be watched intently.

 Is this good for Prince Georges County?  Opponents say it will lead to the economically depressed further going down the rabbit hole trying to make a quick buck.  The revenue generated for schools, county programs, will come on the backs of those who can afford it the least.  Crime will rise.  Proponents say it will revive communities, add to property values, and overall county tax relief.  The truth maybe somewhere in the middle.  

 New Jersey, and casino interests want to overturn the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.  This banned legal sports betting in all states save for Nevada, and to a much lesser extent Delaware, Montana, plus Oregon.  Opposing interests, and legislation in the last three states have   muted sports gaming to a large extent.   Legal analysts say Governor Christie, and casino allies have a great chance of prevailing.  We’ll see.

 For Washington area gamblers the MGM will be more of a mecca of wagering.  Perhaps we’ll hear of the over/under as Georgetown hosts Marist College in NCAA subdivision football.  The real winner will be the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.  Who will the losers be?    

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