Maryland voters have approved table games, including poker, at all casinos in the state. There are three operational casinos in Maryland: Maryland Live at Arundel Mills, Hollywood Casino Perryville, and the Casino at Ocean Downs. Maryland has authorized three more casinos (Baltimore City, Rocky Gap and Prince Georges County). The referendum also allows casinos to stay open 24 hours a day.
Table games should be introduced at the existing casinos as early as spring 2013. The casino in Baltimore City is being built by Caesars Entertainment and expected to begin construction within the next couple of months with an opening planned for 2014. The casino in Prince Georges County will be bid on and MGM is one of the leading contenders. It may take four years for the casino to be open as it is a large-scale project.
DELAWARE PARK EVENTS: Delaware Park Casino will host a series of deepstack tournaments Dec. 26-Jan. 1, with $100-$200 buy-ins every day at noon. Also, the poker room hosts its Winter Classic (Jan. 2-15), including the $400 opening event with a $100K guarantee and the $1,090 main event. (See ad on back inside cover).
Sandy Reschedules PPC: Given the amount of disruption that still exists on the East Coast related to October’s Hurricane Sandy, Pro Poker Championship Inc. and Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Dover, Del., have decided to reschedule the filming of the televised series PPC1. The new dates for the series will be Jan. 11- Feb. 11.
“We wanted to wait as long as possible to make a decision about rescheduling the event, but given the reality that much of the East Coast is still facing devastation, gas-rationing and power outages, rescheduling the event is the prudent course of action,” Pro Poker Championship president Eric Ulis said. “We are excited about putting on a world-class event, but need to let circumstances return to some measure of normalcy first.”
MERSON IS BEST: Congratulations to North Laurel’s Greg Merson for becoming the World Series of Poker’s world champion and player of the year. He grew up in North Laurel, Md., and graduated from Reservoir High. Please see our story on Merson here.
— Michael Young is the Ante Up Ambassador for the Mid-Atlantic area. Email him at anteupmike@gmail.com.
