Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort, the state-owned hotel, conference center and golf course property in Western Maryland, is $66 million in the hole and that debt has played a central role in efforts to find a casino developer to take over the complex.

One of the reasons the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission tossed a bid for the Allegany County casino license is the development group never came up with a proposal that the holders of Rocky Gap debt found palatable.

The resort posted operating losses of $2.9 million in both fiscal 2008 and 2009, and in fiscal 2010, losses rose to $3.8 million, making Rocky Gap the biggest drag on the finances of the Maryland Economic Development Corporation. (Figures available here, page 9.)

The 280-acre resort — it includes 215 hotel rooms and an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course — generates enough cash to cover its operating expenses, but not enough to cover its debt payments, according to legislative budget analysts.

Most of the resort’s debt is in the form of MEDCO bonds issued to private entities. Four different issues carry $46.86 million in outstanding principal, and $2.82 million in interest.

The resort also has a $650,000 line of credit with MEDCO. As of June 30, it had tapped $579,692.

Rocky Gap also owes:

• $6.7 million in ground rent to the Department of Natural Resources, which owns Rocky Gap State Park.
• $482,296 in surcharges to DNR
• $306,774 in “host community fees” to Allegany County
• $3.36 million for a MEDCO service fee
• $608,145 in an advance to MEDCO
• $3.31 million to the Department of Business and Economic Development, which extended the resort a loan from the Maryland Economic Development Assistance Authority and Fund in May 1996
• $1.5 million to DBED, which also extended an interest free loan in November 2001

Gambling is shaping up to be one of the most interesting debates of the 2012 legislative session in Maryland and, underscoring the need that many in the General Assembly feel to approve table games, it’s going to be a big issue in plenty of other states, too.

Maryland’s gamblin’ neighbors already have table games — Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia legalized blackjack, poker, roulette and other casino-style games largely in response to Maryland approving slots.

And because it was slower to embrace slot machines than other states, Maryland is a relatively small fish in a pond that’s big and likely to get bigger. In fiscal 2011, there were 20 casinos operating in those four states. They brought in a total of $3.68 billion in revenue that year from their slot machines alone. Maryland’s share from its two casinos – $103 million, or 2.8 percent.

Revenue from table games totaled $783 million in fiscal 2011 in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware, according to Maryland’s Department of Legislative Services.

That share will grow as the state’s largest casinos in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City open their doors. (The Cordish Cos. is building in Anne Arundel and a group led by Caesars in seeking a license in Baltimore). But the casino scene is getting more crowded everywhere.

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Maryland’s two casinos brought in $12.2 million in revenue in October, according to figures released Monday by the Maryland State Lottery Agency.

That’s a 5 percent drop from September, with Casino at Ocean Downs responsible for all of the decline, and more.

The Worcester County casino, just a short drive from Ocean City, has seen its number slip steadily since the end of the summer.

July was the best month by far for the casino, which has 800 slot machines. Ocean Downs had revenue of $5.3 million that month, followed by $4.6 million in August and $4.7 million in September. With the beach-going tourists mostly gone, revenue dropped to $3.8 million in October.

The casino opened in January, so there is not yet even a full’s year worth of data, much less multiple years to compare, but it appears Ocean Downs will see its bottom line rise and fall with the crowds on the beach.

Hollywood Casino Perryville, the senior Maryland casino at 14 months old, saw the slightest of revenue bumps in November, up just about $20,000 over the month before to $9.1 million in revenue.

Perryville has been relatively steady over the past three months, and that very well could have been four, if not for a pesky hurricane in August.

The casino’s 1,500 slot machines each averaged $202 in revenue per day, slightly below state expectations. About half, $4.4 million, of the slots revenue went to state education efforts and the casinos kept one-third, or $3 million.

One more note from looking back at the slots figures from earlier in the year — even though Perryville isn’t near the beach (I’m not counting the Susquehanna and the upper Chesapeake Bay here), its peak also came in July, a $10.2 million month for the Cecil County casino.

The peaks at both Maryland casinos track with surrounding states, which typically have very strong months — and weeks — around the July 4 holiday.

Part of what drew Caesars Entertainment Corp. to Baltimore is their customers. Many of them are already here.

The company’s “Total Rewards” loyalty program has more than 40 million members. About 1 million are in the Baltimore area.

Caesars president, CEO and chairman Gary Loveman said that familiarity with the brand — Caesars owns casinos under the Harrah’s, Caesars, Horseshoe and several other flags — would give Harrah’s Baltimore a foothold. It would also, Loveman said, allow the casino to use deals to lure Total Rewards members from other parts of the country to Baltimore.

Caesars wants the “VIP customer,” Loveman said.

“In every American market, we want to be home to the VIP customer,” he said. “It will be our strategy that we will have a higher proportion of VIP customers” than other casinos in the area.

The view in the rendering above shows one of two entrances, this one at the corner of Russell and Bayard streets. This is roughly the view you would get driving north on Russell toward downtown.

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The Prince George’s County Council advanced a bill Tuesday that would ban slot machines from the county.

The bill cleared a committee vote 3-0 and still faces a vote of the full council. The legislation, as The Washington Post reports, could put County Executive Rushern Baker in a tough spot in Annapolis. Banning slots could take a bargaining chip off the table for Baker in his dealings with legislative leaders.

Further complicating the situation, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George’s County Democrat, has supported bringing gambling to Rosecroft Raceway in Oxon Hill.

Penn National Gaming Inc., the owner of Rosecroft, is gearing up for a big push in the General Assembly to bring casino gambling to the track. The gaming company, which also owns Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County, released a pair of studies last week that touted billions of dollars in potential economic impact and tax revenue a mega-casino at Rosecroft would have on the county and state.

Hollywood Casino Perryville is one year old — well, one year and four days old — and those 12 months of slot machine gambling in Maryland left me with too much material to shoe-horn into Friday’s story on how the Cecil County casino is growing up.

Here are a few more tidbits:

Perryville general manager Bill Hayles said he would “love to” have a conversation with lawmakers about lowering Maryland’s 67 percent tax on slot machine revenue.

“A 67 percent tax rate obviously minimizes the reinvestment you can put back into your property, when you’re only taking 30 cents out of the dollar and then you have to pay the light bill and wages,” he said. “It’s not like Atlantic City at an 8 percent tax rate where they can give back a lot more into their properties and their customers. So, we’re kind of at a disadvantage at that tax rate.”

Atlantic City and Nevada are indeed in the single digits with their tax rates — Nevada casinos pay just 6.75 percent on slots revenue — and because of that, those areas get the big, glitzy casinos with all the extra amenities. Maryland, however, is not alone on the high end of the tax spectrum.

Here are the tax rates in other gambling states nearby (data from the American Gaming Association):

Delaware: 57.79 percent

Pennsylvania: 55 percent

West Virginia: 54.14 percent

New York: 66.53 percent

“I think there’s a recognition that the mid-Atlantic region is a very high-tax region,” said James Karmel, a gaming analyst and associate professor of history at Harford Community College. “But I think Maryland’s 67 percent is particularly problematic for growing a successful casino industry here in the state.”

The tax rates on table games are much lower, and that’s a debate you’ll likely see in the 2012 session as lawmakers press to get a referendum on the November ballot.

Those table games change the casino clientele. Right now, according to Perryville’s marketing director Marc DeLeo, the crowd skews a little older, and a little more female. Table games bring in younger gamblers and more men.

Hayles and DeLeo also said they scout other casinos in the area to see what they’re offering and how they’re luring in gamblers. Both veterans of the Atlantic City market, where such visits were once taboo, they said casino executives have softened to the practice.

“We competitive shop, sure. It’s part of the business,” Hayles said. “And I know that we get shopped as well by the Delaware people. We’re happy to have them here.

Developer Patrick Turner is working with a mega resort and casino company to win the Baltimore gaming license and build a slots parlor south of M&T Bank Stadium.

Turner attended the state slots commission meeting Wednesday with Jim Seay, another partner in the venture. The pair declined to comment then, but Seay sent a statement later that night confirming the group’s interest in the license.

The full statement is as follows:

Our local development team, which includes MGM, was certainly working diligently towards the anticipated submittal date. Our team has invested significantly in the process in both time and expense. We respect the decision to extend the bid date and are hopeful that during the extension an effort is made to make the overall business model more attractive to the investment community.

MGM is one of the biggest names in Las Vegas, with the massive MGM Grand rising on the south end of the strip. Beyond that, the company  owns 14 other gaming properties, including big names like Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and The Mirage.

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Slot machines have been pumping millions into Maryland’s coffers since the first terminals were opened to the public Sept. 27. But table games, which will certainly be debated during the 2012 legislative session and likely with more fervor than they were this year, may not be such a safe bet for the state.

Tropicana Casino and Resort had the worst April of any of the 11 casinos in Atlantic City, which altogether didn’t have a great month. In AC casino terms, that means $289.4 million in revenue from slots and table games, down from $311.5 million a year ago, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

So, what ails the Trop?

“We ran very unlucky,” Mark Giannantonio, Tropicana’s outgoing chief executive officer, told the newspaper.

He said one blackjack player won $5.8 million at high-stakes tables in April.

“If it hadn’t been for bad luck at the tables, we would have had a good month,” Giannantonio said.

Table game revenues were down 54 percent, to $3.2 million. And blackjack tables actually lost money, some $1.86 million, according to a New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement report.

Maryland can’t get its slot machines in fast enough. Pennsylvania, it seems, has the opposite problem.

The owners of Mount Airy Casino Resort have won approval from state regulators to actually reduce the number of slot machines by 150, to 2,275.

It seems the resort in the Poconos is suffering from a microcosm of the problem Maryland Lottery Director Stephen Martino (who is, as I type this, going over the results of the test run at what will be Maryland’s second casino) warned us about in September. He stopped by The Daily Record just days before Hollywood Casino Perryville opened in Cecil County.

“At some point in time, everybody is going to start cannibalizing from everybody else,” Martino said. “Certainly that’s what you’re seeing in Atlantic City. Atlantic City is distressed. Their numbers are down significantly.”

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The pro-slots groups in Anne Arundel County are maintaining their lead as the results roll in.

With 79 of 197 precincts reporting, 56 percent of voters said “Yes” to the zoning developer David Cordish plans to build the state’s largest casino next to the Arundel Mills shopping mall.

There were 46,784 “Yes” votes cast to 36,841 “No” votes.