Turns out the Maryland market hasn’t quite been saturated, after all. January saw 6% growth in gambling revenue, led by MGM National Harbor‘s $58.5 million (+4%). Slots at MGM were up 10% but table win 
down 2%. MGM had 40% market share to Maryland Live‘s 35.5%. The latter grossed $52 million for a 12% gain. Horseshoe Baltimore‘s decline softened, down only 4.5% with a $19 million gross. (But it was the only revenue-negative property in the state.) Everybody else had a big month. Ocean Downs was up 11% to $5 million, Hollywood Perryville hit the jackpot, gaining 12% to $6 million and Golden Entertainment‘s Rocky Gap Resort leapt 10.5% to $4.5 million. A 10% gain in slot play boosted West Virginia revenues 8%, with Charles Town Races ceding 6% at the tables but recouping 11% at the slots for a 7% uptick overall.
* Human bartenders, watch your backs. Maybe you can’t retrain a factory worker but you can, it seems, reprogram an industrial robot to make cocktails, as has been done in Japan. It’s a response to the graying of the Nipponese workforce, although the attraction for resort companies looking to cut costs (especially if they’re building $10 billion casinos in 
Japan) will be obvious. Heck, the prototype can even chat you up while it takes a minute to fix your drink. Casino development in Nippon is going run smack-dab into a grievous shortage of labor and, at $802,000, robots like this are going to be a relative bargain, amortized within three years. Nor do customers seem to mind. Said consumer Satoshi Harada, “I like it because dealing with people can be a hassle. With this you can just come and get drunk. If they could make it a little quicker it would be even better.” Oh, they will.
* AARP cover girl Shania Twain has announced an additional 14 dates at Planet Hollywood (now that’s a residency, Mr. Pitbull). On the off-chance that you’re interested, there’s an eight-performance stand Aug. 21-Sept. 6, plus six December dates, Dec. 2-12. Tickets go on sale Feb. 14, although it requires being assimilated into the Ticketmaster Borg.
* Erratum: I mistakenly stated that animated feature Klaus (-112) was literally Netflix‘s best bet for an Oscar. That honor actually goes to Best Documentary Feature frontrunner American Factory (-250). It’s the morally complex chronicle of what happens when a Chinese company opens a factory in Dayton and the cultural clashes that ensue. Nobody’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ … or maybe some of both. See it and decide for yourself.
