Maryland's Ocean Downs and Hollywood casinos to kickstart sports betting within one week

Maryland will broaden its sports betting offering with two more casinos launching retail sports wagering before the end of December, after three casinos did so last week. 

Ocean Downs Casino (TwinSpires) is planning to launch before the end of the week, whereas Hollywood Casino Perryville (Barstool Sportsbook) aimed at December 23 on the calendar. MGM National Harbor, Live! Casino and Horseshoe Casino Baltimore launched last week, signaling the start of legal sports betting in the state.

Off-track betting facilities Riverboat on the Potomac (PointsBet) and Long Shot’s intend to start their retail sportsbook operations in early 2022, with the latter still to announce a partnership deal with a sportsbook operator.  

Ocean Downs Casino will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET. 

After two days of controlled demonstrations, Bobbi Sample, Ocean Downs Casino’s general manager said during Thursday’s lottery commission meeting: “Our first day went fairly well. We’ve made a couple of adjustments, and we’re looking forward to a successful demonstration today and targeting to go live on Friday with the ribbon-cutting at 5:30”.

Ocean Downs was awarded a license by the state’s Sports Wagering Application Review Commission (SWARC) on November 18, which was the same date MGM National Harbor, Live! Casino, and Horseshoe Casino received their respective licenses.

Even though Hollywood Casino Perryville also got its license approved on the same day, the property plans to go through the final stages of the regulatory approval process early next week before launching. 

Timothy Shea, VP of operations at the casino, said during the lottery commission meeting: “Our controlled demonstrations are Monday and Wednesday. We hope with everything going well with the regulatory approval that we’ll go live on the 23rd. First quarter of 2022, we’ll begin construction of our permanent sportsbook, which is Barstool Sportsbook”. 

The construction project for the permanent sportsbook is expected to take about a month to complete. Until then, customers can use the entity’s temporary option.

Greenmount off-track betting facility, located in Hampstead, cleared an initial regulatory hurdle Thursday morning as it aims to launch retail sports betting. Greenmount passed through a lottery qualification hearing, moving it in front of the SWARC, which will have an opportunity to award the facility a sports wagering license at its next meeting. As of Thursday, the SWARC’s next meeting had yet to be scheduled. 

David Richardson, one of the owners of Greenmount’s sports wagering facility, said: “We just want to thank the staff of the Maryland lottery for all their help. We’re two little guys up in Carroll County, and navigating these waters have been challenging, and we definitely want to thank the staff for helping us get to where we are.”

Greenmount has not yet announced a partnership with a sportsbook operator.