Maryland Live Casino opened two years ago after a referendum in the state gave the go ahead to gambling on slot machines. Then the casino, which is one of the largest in the United States launched over 120 live gaming tables including baccarat, blackjack, roulette and craps in the spring of 2013. Now it offers players about 4 400 slot machines and electric games as well as almost 200 live table games and a very large poker room incorporating 52 tables. The Maryland Live Casino is part of a huge leisure and entertainment complex in the Arundel Mills area. It is estimated that the complex is worth 500 million dollars.The Maryland Live Casino brought in at least 580 million dollars before tax in 2013 which represents quite a large tax income for the state of Maryland. With an average amount of well over 1 and a half million dollars a day coming into the casino, security is a major concern. While no actual figures are available for the expenditure on security in the casino, it is thought to run into millions per year. There are over a thousand security cameras watching every movement in the actual casino as well as in the behind the scenes areas, restaurants and car park. All of these cameras feed information into banks of monitors which are manned 24 hours a day by a security team. This team is specifically trained to home in on any suspicious or out of character behaviour from players or even from the casino’s own staff as fraud and theft can also come from within such a large gambling operation.
The Maryland Live Casino has a 200 strong security force. This is necessary to protect and ensure that the thousands of players who visit the casino, gambling over 50 million dollars every month, can play in complete safety. In order to do this and have players feel secure the surveillance is discreet involving the security staff and the latest technology including a closed circuit video system. The casino management encourages this feeling of safety by not having the cashiers behind security glass. The local police force is also involved in the security within and around the casino and has even noted a slight decrease in some illegal activities in the area which may be due to the intense surveillance in the Maryland Live Casino.
