Poker in Maryland: six licensed casinos, table games since 2012

Maryland's poker position comes from two ballot questions. In November 2008 voters ratified a constitutional amendment allowing slot machines at five locations — Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Cecil County, Allegany County and Worcester County. In November 2012 they went further and approved an expansion that permitted **table games at every Maryland casino**, allowed 24-hour operation, and added a sixth casino in Prince George's County.

That second vote is the one that matters to a card player. Before it, Maryland's casinos were slot halls. After it, table games — the category poker sits in — became lawful statewide.

General information, not legal advice.

The six licensed casinos

Maryland Lottery and Gaming lists six casinos, opened between September 2010 and December 2016. Each operator licence was awarded by the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission, formed in 2009 to choose the operators and locations:

- **Hollywood Casino**, Perryville — opened 27 September 2010 (Cecil County) - **Ocean Downs Casino**, Berlin — opened 4 January 2011 (Worcester County) - **Live! Casino & Hotel**, Hanover — opened 6 June 2012 (Anne Arundel County) - **Rocky Gap Casino Resort**, Cumberland — opened 22 May 2013 (Allegany County) - **Horseshoe Casino**, Baltimore — opened 26 August 2014 (Baltimore City) - **MGM National Harbor**, Oxon Hill — opened 8 December 2016 (Prince George's County)

The two largest rooms by floor size are MGM National Harbor and Live! Casino & Hotel, and they are where Maryland's table-game business is concentrated. Whether a given property is currently dealing poker, and on what schedule, is a decision each casino makes and changes; the state authorises the game category, not the daily lineup. Check the casino's own poker page before driving.

Who regulates it

The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission (MLGCC), with staff support from the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency (MLGCA), handles everything to do with casino regulation and licensing — internal controls, auditing, security, surveillance, background investigations, licensing and accounting procedures at each casino. The agency also publishes standard table game rules, which is a useful document for anyone who wants to know how a Maryland table is supposed to be run.

The agency's published remit covers casinos, casino and sportsbook compliance, skills-based amusement devices, the ITLM programme, commercial electronic instant bingo and fantasy competitions. There is no online casino or online poker programme in that list. Marylanders looking to play online poker therefore have no state-regulated room to join, which is the same position as most US states outside the handful with regulated online poker.

Sweepstakes poker, and what to check

With no state-regulated online poker, the online poker Marylanders can reach runs on the sweepstakes model, which operates under promotional-sweepstakes rules rather than a gaming licence. That is a genuinely different legal structure, not a workaround of the same one, and the practical differences — how entries are obtained, what can be redeemed and on what terms — live in the operator's own rules. Read them before you register, not after. Our ClubWPT Gold page explains the model in general terms.

We do not tell you that a sweepstakes site is "legal online poker in Maryland". It is a different product under a different body of law, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling.

Taking a break: the VEP

Maryland has run a voluntary self-exclusion programme since 2011, and it is unusually broad. The Voluntary Exclusion Program covers casino play and lottery play, and also applies at MLGCA-regulated bingo halls in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties, and to sports wagering and daily fantasy sports. Enrolment goes through the MLGCA's Responsible Gambling Program Director, by appointment or at responsible.gaming@maryland.gov — or, more usefully for someone who decides in the moment, by speaking to the MLGCA compliance officials who are on duty at all operating hours at each of the six licensed casinos.

The Maryland Problem Gambling Helpline is **1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537)**, open 24 hours. Maryland residents are eligible for no-cost problem gambling treatment and can be referred to a counsellor directly through the helpline, or connected to a peer support specialist with lived experience of problem gambling and recovery. Further resources sit with the Maryland Alliance for Responsible Gambling at mdgamblinghelp.org, the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, the Maryland Coalition of Families, the Maryland Council on Problem Gambling, and Gamblers Anonymous on 855-222-5542.

Poker is entertainment. Set the number before you sit down, and use the VEP if the number stops holding.