Gaming revenues were up 2% last month in Maryland, good for $149 million. $61 million of that was won by MGM National Harbor (+4%). 
Market share was dominated by MGM (41%) and Maryland Live (33%). The Cordish Gaming property grossed $49 million, a 3% uptick. Horseshoe Baltimore ($19.5 million) continues to fade, down 5%. Among outlying casinos, Ocean Downs grossed $8 million (-5.5%) while Hollywood Perryville gained 6% for a $6.5 million finish. Rocky Gap Resort was flat at $5 million. In West Virginia, casino revenues fell 7%, driven by a 26% plunge in table winnings. It was worse than average at Charles Town Races, falling 11% as table-game revenues went into a 37% tailspin.
* More trouble for Crown Resorts. Aussie roundballer Ben Simmons says he was denied entry to Crown Casino, along with two other black men, in Melbourne. Crown “strenuously” disagrees, saying the group was admitted after producing appropriate identification. (We wonder if they’d been carded were their skins lighter.) Our sympathies are with Simmons, even if his new, $170 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers will buy a lot of salve.
* Endless foot-dragging on Tribal Winds Casino could pay off big-time for Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino. In an attempt to break the casino
deadlock in his state, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) is proposing to make over XL Center in Hartford as a casino and sell it to the tribes. The latter are said to be resisting, even with Lamont dangling the lure of sports betting before them. Internet gambling would also be on the table. It would also get MGM Resorts International off Lamont’s back, as MGM has offered to drop its litigation against the state in return for scrapping of Tribal Winds, putative rival to MGM Springfield. “I feel very strongly that if we come up with the right deal, they would not sue,” the governor said, adding, “I wanted something that made sure we didn’t get stuck in a legal ditch for the next five years … I wanted something that allows us to get going with sports betting and internet gambling. Those aren’t things that I do or care particularly about, but that’s part of the 21st century. Our neighbors are beginning to do it, and I want to get going on it. I just worry that if we have a partial solution that leads to another round of litigation, we’re not going to be any better off.”
With sports betting legal in Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York, Lamont 
is in a pincer, fearful of losing revenue to his neighbors. Evincing some impatience, the governor vented, “I’ll revive any [gambling] idea that lets us get off the dime, and I don’t have to sit around and talk about gambling for the next three years — because in terms of my priorities, I’m not sure it’s in the top 20.” State Sen. Cathy Osten (D) is pushing for a special session to legalize sports betting in time for the Super Bowl but the GOP is resistant. The latter may have a point: East Windsor has been in a two-year holding pattern and isn’t going anywhere soon.
* Trade bellicosity between China and the U.S., plus currency devaluation, drove gaming stocks lower this week. Unrest in Hong Kong isn’t helping 
either, although record levels of visitation to Macao at least bode well for mass-market play. But, JP Morgan analysts write, “VIP demand deteriorated sharply toward the latter half of July with no obvious reason, in turn suggesting it could be a short-term blip amid heightened media attention on Hong Kong, given escalated protests, and junkets.” Another market-chilling factor was Beijing‘s clampdown on junketeers who are dabbling in (illegal) online gambling, curbing VIP traffic.
* E-sports isn’t just for pimply teenaged boys anymore. Teams are starting to make outreach to female players, who already make up a large part of the e-sports constituency. Yes, but can they—having been cultivated—be converted into casino gamblers?
* Elsewhere in the British Isles, the latest problem-gambling-deterrence PR campaign has laid an egg. Of course, the central issue cuts much deeper than catchy slogans, so maybe all the furor is misplaced.
