congrats to David Cordish on a wonderful opening to Maryland Live

Didn't sound or look like a wonderful opening. Poorly managed crowd and traffic congestion and not so friendly staff do not bode well for a place that is already at a competitive disadvantage to its neighbors (some of whom are able to operate 24 hours, provide table games, and allow patrons to actually make a profit just for tkaing the bus ride to them) does not bode well for its future. As detailed in this Sunday's Sun, odds are very good this Cordish experiment will end up in failure like his other gambling ventures.

Don't start complaining about the traffic now, especially if you live in Anne Arundel County and voted yes on the referendum... this is what you get and it will only get worse, not to mention that our tax money paid for most of the slot machines and the economy is so bad right now some people have to decide between paying a bill and eating! The residents of Howard County didn't even get a voice but yet we have to deal with all the other BS that comes with it, so if you voted for it... have fun sitting in traffic day in and day out, it's time lay in your bed! I will shop and eat at Columbia Mall!

its not that we were unfriendly.....we are very friendly....we were just extremely busy. We had 10 different people talking to us at one time and we tried to answer all questions and fix all problems. It was opening night.......most people hired at the casino has never worked in one before, so we are all green. As with anytime you do something for the first time, things will go wrong. When you left for the casino you should have been prepared for traffic, been prepared for a long line, been prepared for parking issues.........I myself, think we did an awesome job. It was one of those nights that all the training in the world can not prepare you for and we pulled it off. I congratulate all the workers of Maryland Live!!!!!!! I think it will be very successful.

Serving the public under those conditions is very, very challenging. People are impatient, they've already sat in traffic, and their expectations for a good time are high. Things will settle down, the staff will hit their stride, and gain confidence with experience. Hats off to all the workers, I'm sure you worked very hard to please everyone.

The economy must have really recovered if thousands of people have money to waste. Thank you President Obama!
JP

If you went last night, do you plan to come back? If so, how soon?

How are the merchants in the mall going to be affected by the traffic gridlock? I plan on making no trips to the Arundel Mills for at least the next two weekends because of the casino traffic. The evenings are probably going to be just as bad, so that eliminates any time that I can go there. I'm sure many other potential shoppers are thinking the same thing.

I do plan on visiting the casino, someday, when I have a day off during the week. Maybe that will be my chance to actually buy something in the mall. Rather than eating in the mall, however, I will eat in the casino at one of the new restaurants. None of this will help the businesses in the mall. Customers will be walking through the mall just to get to the casino. They will be conserving their money for the gambling and won't have anything left for shopping.

its disgusting that anyone would wait in line for 9 hours just to go waste money. I HATE that we have a casino at the mall. I love this mall but I'm not going to try to fight traffic to get there when there are plenty of other malls in the area. I voted against this casino coming here and I'm not sorry I did, just sorry it went through.

Let's be real - Westfield mall in Annapolis SMOKES Arundel Mills. Their food court is fantastic - Arundel Mill's is a joke. There are anchor stores at Westfield and stores to "actually" shop in.

These people quoted in the piece sound like utter fools. So much money you'll need a check??? HA!! After you have flushed HOW much down the toilet do you expect this check?
Here's a novel idea: Take that money that you are going to FLUSH down the Cordish toilet and put it in a savings account or a 401(k) plan.
A casino is *not* a retirement plan.

@ tammy howard county residents can't vote in arundel so no they dont get a say! and i go to columbia mall alot parking sucks there too! plus we were treated to the joy of watching a couple of thugs beat the crap out of each other in front of the movie theater! some much for choosing civility. it always funny to see people get all high and mighty acting like mine is better (what are you two).
it is the first night it was open let the hype calm down and then see what problems (if any) there are.

Sounds like the sour grapes from those who opposed the slots are coming out again. If you don't like slots don't go to the casino but you can end your anti-slots crusade... you lost! Its a grand opening, of course there are going to be some traffic issues, some customer service learning to be done, it would be the same if any large scale store or facility opened up. I don't shop at Arundel Mills anyway so I won't shop there now I'll just enjoy Columbia Mall myself because the traffic and parking there is so easy ** sarcasm **

There's the bitter irony. Those opposed to the slots didn't actually lose - you did. It's like a kid wishing for a pet elephant and thinking he "won" when he gets it.

Call it sour grapes or what you want, but those that live near Arundel Mills (even those that voted for it) will have to suffer through the issues that go with the casino. Nobody that lives near the mall, even those that voted for the casino, are going to want to bother with the traffic to go to "convenience" places like McDonalds or Chick fil a to pick up a quick dinner. Many are not going to want to shop at the mall because parking is just too inconvenient (and it was even before the casino came). And commuters should add in another 30 minutes or more to their commute on Thursdays and Fridays as traffic ramps up for the long weekends of summer. While those that opposed the slots can certainly sit back and say "We told you so..." It certainly doesn't change the fact that anyone who lives in a 5 mile radius of the mall will definitely be affected in some negative manner (traffic, noise, lights, lack of convenience, etc.)

Arundel Mills existed long before most of the residential communities that were built around it were even in the planning stages. If you moved to the Arundel Mills area and didn't think that more things would develop around it you were naive. Many people will go to the mall and casino and all of the business and food offerings surrounding it. That casino wether you are opposed to slot machine gambling or not is going create/maintain jobs for many people, not just those that work at Live but also those that work at the mall, mcDonalds and Chik fil a. A lot of people have jobs because of that casino.
I don't like people who eat organic & healthy food but I'm not going to waste my life trying get Maryland to ban Trader Joes (Trader Joe's grass fed angus beef can be addictive you know) because it increases traffic and makes it difficult for me to find parking when I go to FatBurger on my way to the Columbia Mall.
Go Kordish! Go Slots! Go Gamblers! And Go employed therapists who have jobs thanks to addicted gamblers!

Sour grapes is Cordish suing the Jockey's Association after he won. And we still haven't heard from one official who can explain how a casino that was supposed to help Maryland's struggling horse industry ended up in Cordish's yard. He has ruined the lives of the folks living along Ridge and Severn Rds who were there well before Arundel Mills was even a concept (folks who bought the houses post-Arundel Mills knew what they were in for before they moved in) simply because he is too cheap to provide better access to his complex without gridlocking residential neighborhood access . Now Cordish wants table games and the ability to block competition from Nattonal Harbor and other proposed venues? Just say no! He fought and spent hard to get this. Let him lie in the bed he made as interest quickly wanes.

National Harbor would be the best location for a big casino with all kinds of table games. Since casinos will never be legal in Virginia and DC, they will all go there instead of the Cordish one. That would create tons of jobs and revenue for Maryland, and it would come mostly from out of state! Don't feel sorry for Cordish - what's best for Maryland is not what's best for Cordish.

I admit, I moved into the Arundel Mills Mall area 8 years ago and like anyone else who move in this area during that time, there was no indication there would be any casinos in the area. What makes me mad is that numerous people state we should have known better to move to the Arundel Mills Mall area because developments such as casinos could locate there when actually, casinos can locate ANYWHERE!!!

Noticed today that the Elkridge sign on I-95 North has been replaced with one that now reads "Elkridge / Maryland Live Casino". I'm sure it won't bother 99% of everyone, but it really bothered me - Elkridge has nothing to do with that place. If you do happen to find it insulting as well, you can complain (nicely please; the lady there was extremely pleasant) to SHA District 7 @ 301-624-8100. Took all of 2 minutes of my life to do so.

What was the response from SHA?

I noticed the sign too. they could have left it and put the new one near it

Maryland has always practiced a double standard in our state: smoking is bad, drinking is bad, gambling is bad. Look at what Maryland has to offer: one can buy smokes anywhere, booze is everywhere, and gambling was easy with LOTTO, Power ball, pick 3/4 twice a day, keno, racetrack horse betting, and now with a local casinos addicts will be easy for the suckers. I should now expect someone to steal my stereo out of my car on the street to get some gambling cash.
Word of warning: gambling was going to fix Atlantic City in the 1970's. It was better for a while in the 1990's. Now it has hit rock bottom and if you go out on the boardwalk near Resorts Casino you will be scared for you wallet and your life. Not to say this is going to happen at AA Mills mall, but there have been issues with punks in the past and there is the possibility that a more derelict element attracted to liquored up winners leaving with cash in hand. Just saying.

Why does Maryland Live get to display their name on an I-95 sign when other businesses like various shopping centers can't?

Did anyone see the Fox45 video of the opening? What was the overly madeup big woman at the slot doing with a minature dog in her arm? There is no way that was a service dog. They serve food there for God's sake. Leave the pet home. 2 days in and its already attracting only the highest class clientele (sarcasm). Leopold should be proud. He was obviously too busy focusing romancing his female staffers to see or care that Cordish was screwing his west county constituents.

"you will be scared for you wallet and your life"
Many would suggest that would describe the Arundel Mills parking lot well before the casino was a twinkle in cordish's eye. All this talk about added crime in the area is crazy, Arundel Mills is a terrible location for crime wether the casino was there or not and it has been that way since it opened. I just can't get over the whining and crying... so they put the casino name on a sign on I-95, a major interstate that can direct traffic especially non-marylanders to go to the casino and put some money into the Maryland economy. And if the slots meet expectations and these $ percentages are correct how can you continue to cry??

48.5 percent to education (If you have not noticed our schools could use some money), 33 percent to the casino (Any business can be expected to make a profit), 7 percent to increase the purses (Gotta get folks to come to MD and not surrounding states), 2.5 percent to the racetrack facility for capital improvements (Who cares?, but you would if the Preakness economic impact went to another state), 2 percent to the Maryland Lottery (Increase those purses to bring in even more $) ,1.5 percent to small, minority and women owned businesses (Ya, this would be annoying huh?), 5.5 percent to the local impact fund (I think this is Leopold's security and womanizing fund)

There is NO WAY in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that those promised percentages will come to fruition in real life. I believe that those tantalizing, feel-good, promises are like all other too-good-to-be-true political promises to make convince voters.

NO WAY is the money going to be doled out like that.
NO WAY!!!!!

http://casinowatch.org/studies_research/New%20Casinos%20Impact.pdf - a good read. Casinos end up be the "vampire squid" of local communities - sucking the life out of surrounding businesses.

I was at the mall yesterday and was surprised by the lack of traffic. I was expecting gridlock but there was only regular Saturday traffic over there. Just my .02.

When word gets out that it's a traffic nightmare and people are in line until 2am most people get the hint and lay low.

One of the first things I learned in programming class is that a computer can not generate a truly random number. It has to have a starting point. It can chew on that starting point with a variety of functions but it can't make a number up out of nothing.

What is the point of electronic games? You're just following whatever algorithm has been programmed into the machines.

that is right on the money. The Racetrax game has odds so you get bigger winnings betting on the 10,11,or 12 horse than the 1, 2,3. In real life the odds are made by the gamblers betting on each horse. With this program who the hell knows how the computer picked the winner.

I can remember when the 295 traffic was horrendous when Arundel Mills opened right in time for Christmas sales. It was bad then too, didn't hear too many complaints about it though.

As of noon today (one hour ago) the new "diverging diamond" interchange at 295 and Arundel Mills Blvd is open.