Jackpot: State Gives Prince George's Casino License to MGM Resorts

A state commission voted 5 to 2 Friday to award Maryland’s sixth and final casino license to MGM Resorts International, which wants to develop a $925 million casino complex at National Harbor, the waterfront development in Prince George’s County, the Washington Post reports.

Friday’s decision by the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission marked the second win in a campaign waged by MGM, which spent about $40 million last year to support the state’s referendum to expand gambling, according to the Post.

The casino site with the Washington Monument views has long been favored by Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) as a catalyst for economic development, the Post said.

The newspaper says the Las Vegas-based company won the lucrative casino license over proposals from two Pennsylvania gambling operators: Greenwood Racing, which wanted to build Parx Casino Hotel & Spa off Indian Head Highway, and Penn National Gaming, which pitched the state on Hollywood Casino Resort at Rosecroft Raceway.

The MGM casino would become the state's sixth casino when it opens. It's targeted squarely at potential gamblers from Virginia and Washington, D.C. It also will bolster Maryland's ability to challenge neighboring states for gambling dollars, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey, analysts told the Baltimore Business Journal.

MGM’s plans call for a resort on a 23-acre site overlooking the Potomac River, near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the Post says. The hilltop resort — expected to open in mid-2016 — will feature an 18-story, 300-suite glass hotel tower, along with 3,600 slot machines, 140 gaming tables, several celebrity-chef-driven restaurants, a concert theater, a spa, luxury retail stores, a reflecting pool and other amenities.