MD gambling revenue dips slightly in fiscal ‘24 on heels of especially strong ‘23

Lottery, casino and sports gambling generated nearly $1.6 billion in state revenue in fiscal year 2024, a minimal decline from last year’s total.

The amount represented Maryland’s second-highest revenue total from gambling, even as overall Lottery sales and casino revenue both declined year-over-year.

Bolstering the state’s proceeds were the continued growth of the state’s nearly-two-year-old mobile sports betting market and a new daily game in the Maryland Lottery, according to the state agency that oversees the Lottery, six casinos and sports betting.

As Maryland’s gambling markets and revenue have grown, so has concern about the prevalence of problem gambling, a mental health diagnosis that the National Council on Problem Gambling has defined as behavior that damages an afflicted person and their family and often disrupts their daily life and career.

It was also the first full fiscal year for mobile sports betting, which was available for the last seven months of the prior fiscal year.

“We had an exceptional performance in fiscal year 2023, so we came into (fiscal year) 2024 facing a challenging year-over-year comparison,” John Martin, director of the state’s Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, said in a statement Friday. “Nonetheless, we had another strong year on a number of fronts.”

The state’s gambling revenue total decreased 0.25% from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2024, which ended June 30.

Revenue from Maryland’s casinos comprised more than half of the fiscal year total and the Lottery made up about 44%, according to the Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. Sports gambling and daily fantasy games accounted for about 4%.

The bulk of the state’s Lottery revenue goes to the $63 billion operating budget to pay for programs and services like schools, public health and public safety, while much of the casino revenue went to a trust fund for public education and school construction and maintenance.

State officials also used some casino money for grants and aid to local governments for communities housing the casinos, for upkeeping horse racing facilities and expanding a purse account for race winnings, and for small minority- and women-owned businesses.

Sports betting proceeds are set aside for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a lofty, expensive plan to boost education systems and student performance statewide by starting childhood education at an earlier age, increasing pay for teachers and bolstering career and technical education opportunities.

Maryland lawmakers have allocated a tiny fraction of casino and sports betting revenue to programs that treat and prevent problem gambling.

The prominence and accessibility of mobile betting with the advent of sports wagering in Maryland has particularly generated concern about problem gambling among the state’s advocates and researchers.

Even before mobile sports betting, Maryland was falling short of expectations and national standards in helping people suffering from a gambling problem, according to a recent legislative report.

Advocates for problem gambling resources, including researchers, academics, lawmakers and more, have said the state must dedicate a percentage of the revenue to helping those suffering from a gambling disorder.

But proposals to divert even 1% of sports betting revenue to help fight problem gambling have met a lack of consensus in the legislature, at least in part because of the lack of appetite to divert any money from the Blueprint education plan.

The roughly $40-billion, 10-year plan lacks a permanent funding stream and will be a major driver of multibillion-dollar operating budget deficits in the later years.

Lawmakers set up a problem gambling fund in 2007 with the legalization of casino gambling, but as the state has rolled out other forms of betting, they haven’t added revenue streams for the fund.

Mary Drexler, the director of operations for the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, previously wrote to lawmakers that a dedicated funding stream would help the center boost marketing to counter the gambling industry’s multibillion-dollar campaigns.

It would also help the center attract more treatment providers to the state’s no-cost network and launch public awareness campaigns to target people who are especially prone to problem gambling, like veterans with PTSD, she wrote.