Maryland handle growth continues, up 12 percent in 2017

Betting handle in Maryland grew for the third consecutive year in 2017 when a total of $627.3 million was wagered. That is an increase of 12 percent from the 2016 figure of $560.1 million.

Handle at the Maryland Jockey Club tracks has improved each year since 2014. Beginning in 2015, The Stronach Group, which owns Laurel and Pimlico, began a major capital improvement program, especially at Laurel, which held 150 of the 162 live programs last year.

The total betting figure includes all wagers made on races held at Laurel Park and Pimlico, plus bets made in Maryland on incoming simulcasts. The figures include Preakness Day and Black-Eyed-Susan Day.

According to figures supplied by the MJC, a total of $156.5 million was bet in-state in 2017. Of that amount, $29.1 million was bet on races run at Laurel and Pimlico and $127.4 million was wagered on simulcast races. The total in-state handle is up 8.5 percent from the $144.2 million bet in 2016.

The out-of-state handle on races run at Laurel and Pimlico totaled $470.8 million, up 13.2 percent from $415.9 million in 2016. That is an average of $2.9 million per live program.

While pleased with the results, Sal Sinatra, president of the MJC, thinks the potential exists for stronger business in coming years.

“For the year overall, we are on the upswing,” he said. “The record all-sources handle in Maryland is $870 million. That’s my goal.”

The last time betting in Maryland surpassed $600 million in handle was 2008.

If there is a blemish on the business figures, it is that in-state betting on the races held at Laurel and Pimlico was stagnant in 2017. Seven more race days were held in 2017 than in 2016 – an increase of 4.5 percent – but the $29.1 million wagered in-state on those races only increased 4.6 percent.

A contributing factor was wet weather during the Laurel fall meet, which ran from Sept. 5 through the end of the year. The 142-foot wide Laurel turf course has six different running lanes, and a high percentage of the track’s races are carded on grass. When races are taken off the turf, scratches often result in small fields.

“We got hammered by the weather and lost 16 turf dates,” Sinatra said. “You live by turf racing, you die by turf racing. I’m already dreaming of a dry summer.”

It also is possible patrons are more frequently using betting accounts while they are at the track. If someone ontrack uses an account, for bookkeeping purposes that money is considered to have been bet out of state.

There were 61 live cards at the fall meet, an increase of 17.3 percent over the 52 held in 2016. All-sources handle at the meet – including incoming simulcasts – totaled $177.9 million, an increase of 12.6 percent from a year ago. The average daily handle was $2.55 million.

Out-of-state handle at the fall meet was $132.3 million, up 20.7 percent. In-state betting on the meet totaled $7.4 million, the same as a year ago. Betting on incoming simulcasts was down 6.7 percent to $38.2 million.

In the next two weeks, the MJC will open an off-track betting outlet in Hampstead, Md., about 30 miles northwest of Baltimore. It will be the sixth outlet in the state and the fifth the MJC has opened in the past few years.

“Offtrack betting in 2017 was $38.5 million,” Sinatra said. “I’d like to get it up to $50 million. The Timonium OTB is handling $13 million a year.”

Two or possibly three additional OTBs are expected to open in 2018.

The highlights of the year included a record-setting Preakness card when 140,327 fans attended the races and the 14-race card handled $97.96 million. Both figures are all-time highs.

Records were also set the previous day, when on-track attendance for the Black-Eyed Susan card was 50,339 and all-sources handle reached $19.89 million.