SNOW HILL — In its first meeting since January, the Worcester County Local Development Council (LDC) gathered Monday to discuss the Casino at Ocean Downs’ slot revenue and expansion plans. No official timeline has been set for the casino’s construction of additional room for table games, though the facility is making progress with upgrading water and sewer, a major step for any future growth.
In terms of finance, the casino saw a minor uptick in revenue for FY15 so far, though the numbers are only a slight increase from where they were last summer.
“August is generally our strongest month. It wasn’t that great, I mean it wasn’t any better than it has been in the past,” said Joe Cavilla, general manager for Ocean Downs. “July and August are the two best months.”
One reason why casino revenue might not be higher is that new gambling options continue to open across the state with the most recent being the massive Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore. It’s too early to tell if Horseshoe will cut into Ocean Downs’ bottom line.
“We had additional competition open up on [Aug.] 26 so we haven’t really felt anything from that yet but with Baltimore opening potentially that could impact us,” said Cavilla. “We do have customers that travel in from that area. Are they making a special trip to come see us? I don’t know.”
Cavilla added that Ocean Downs is fortunate in that a lot of traffic heads to Worcester and Ocean City for reasons not related to gambling but those same people will often visit the casino during their vacations.
One silver lining for Ocean Downs with all of the new facilities opening in Maryland is that the casino will no longer have to cede 18 percent of revenue to Annapolis. The withholding ceased in mid-August and the county and local municipalities are anticipating receiving more funding from the casino, as part as a long-standing revenue sharing plan, because of that.
However, the county won’t likely see any cut of the revenue that will result from the addition of table games at Ocean Downs sometime in the near future. Worcester is being left out of the picture with table games because they are much more labor intensive than slots, explained Cavilla, and thus more expensive for the casino to run. There is still an economic upside to table games for the region, however, in the form of new jobs.
“Our initial estimates are about 25 and that’s not just dealers, we have other areas where they will be as well,” said Cavilla.
LDC member Cam Bunting was curious if there could be anyway to pencil Worcester into the equation.
“So I guess my question is, why aren’t we getting the money from table games? And can we get it amended so that we do? And why did they take it out?,” she asked.
County attorney Sonny Bloxom didn’t hold much hope of any changes to the approved formula.
“So keep in mind that if you do any legislation that would give some of this income to the county it would come out of the state, not the casino, so good luck,” said Bloxom. “The state’s all about taking money, not about giving it back.”
When asked about when Ocean Downs will actually open table games, Cavilla replied that no construction announcement for the new gaming space can be made at this time. The casino does have an initial exterior design for the table game addition to the property but Cavilla was mum on when shovels might meet dirt.
However, he did tell the LDC that the casino is focusing on water and sewer and making progress on that front. A sewer connection to the Ocean Pines plant is underway and Ocean Downs is “closing in on completing that project.”