John Martin from the Maryland Lottery discussed the significant impact of sports wagering on the state’s economy, highlighting that October’s sports wagering handle reached $593 million, the largest ever, and contributed $7 million to the state.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Maryland crab cake tour, sports wagering, October numbers, football season, mobile wagering, retail sports books, responsible gaming, Mega Millions promotion, holiday scratch offs, second chance prizes, college football, lottery events, gaming revenue, player behavior, economic impact
SPEAKERS
John Martin, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. We are taking the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. We’re going to be at Green mount station in Hampstead next Thursday. All of it brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll be giving away the Raven scratch off. It’s been a lucky batch. Still got found no winners from Adam mamas on the half shell And Owings Mills have to go back there and give some more away. Find some winners also our friends at the Liberty pure solutions putting us out on the road for our 26th annual anniversary, anniversary, not annual oyster tour. Try saying that a bunch of times during Pittsburgh week here we didn’t get together play some football and talk some football. But before we do that, we’re going to talk some lottery, because John Martin is here. He will not be here next week, and it is Pittsburgh week, and we have this whole Bermuda triangle thing. You Me, Seth Elkin, I gotta get Doug going. I know Doug’s a big ravens guy, so get bring him in here. But anytime there’s Cleveland or Pittsburgh involved you, you seem to be on vacation, and things seem to happen, and next week, it could be a very tough week around here in a first place, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, battle. John Martin, I want you to know that
John Martin 01:08
it is amazing, isn’t it that I, I somehow seem to sneak in and out When, when, when opportunity presents itself. Yeah, I, you know my my tag team partner Seth Elkin is just chomping at the bit to to sit in this seat next week. So Maybe he knows something
Nestor Aparicio 01:28
that that I don’t know. Headline right now at Baltimore, positive com says dangerous trip to Pittsburgh, so I’m at least on the front end of I thought the Browns were dangerous a couple of weeks ago. Um, for you guys with the lottery stuff, let’s bring this thing full circle here, because we’ve talked sports wagering. Last week, we talked casinos, we talked numbers, and the aforementioned Seth Elkin has sent me sports wagering contributes 7 million to the state during October. And we could talk about October, but so much about football. We talked last week about little bit about the commanders and what they’ve done at their stadium and all that. It’s just when rivalries happen in football season happens, it really stops everything. And I feel it this week in a way with Baltimore, Pittsburgh, that I don’t feel it any other way. And I view sports a little differently since the wagering thing has happened, and we’re always telling people, slow the roll, go easy on this. But it’s also something clearly that when numbers come out, and I get press releases, and you and I have to talk seriously about it in that way, it’s something we didn’t have three, 510, any years ago that we now have, that says there’s just such an incredible appetite for sports in this country, and football specifically, and what it does, sort of along the economic chain of packing bars downtown, packing bars when they’re in Pittsburgh this weekend, people watching the games. People love football in this country. People love sports
John Martin 02:54
and people love numbers. And you know, every month we we forward face public entity that we are, we report on our numbers, and I’m glad you started there, because yes, October was a very good month. Matter of fact, it was the largest handle. And handle, again, means how much money is wagered. The largest handle at over $593 million just in the month of October. That’s across all sports markets. Obviously, October is unique in that you’ve got that that confluence of the World Series, NBA, basketball, NFL, football, hockey season. So you have the four major professional sports all in play in the month of October. And not only do you have a large handle in the month, but depending on how those games go, you can get a pretty good month in terms of our contribution to the state, the third best month ever, little over $7 million to the state. And of course, you sit there and you think, Well, gee, why? If the handle is number one, why isn’t the transfer to the state the largest? Well, it’s, quite simply, because they play the games. And October was a very, very favorable month for players, particularly those players who tend to bet the favorites, or they tend to bet the over. And that’s, that’s, you know, a little bit of behavioral science, I think most people like to bet the favorite. Most people like to bet over than under. And October was very kind in both those categories. So the whole the amount of money that the casinos and the sports books keep after the wagers are paid was back in the single digits. And historically, it’s been a double digit number anywhere between 1012, 13% hold in the month of October, the hold across all sports books was 8.4% and some of the retail books were
Nestor Aparicio 04:53
actually doing well. That’s what that means, correct? Players are doing well, and players are winning more than they have. Else wants them to win? Like,
John Martin 05:01
well, yeah, yeah, but, but the house, they might
Nestor Aparicio 05:05
be the Ravens defense, just a lot. You know, I kid this week, but they’re they, they’re really good, but they give up a lot of points, and the over is a play, and I sit here much more so and and John, there are times like even in this conversation, where I itch a little bit because I was never allowed to talk about this, and to say, you know, like, literally, they didn’t want you talking about this. The least none of this existed, because none of this was legal and any of that. And, dare I say, and I want to interject this, because you mentioned October, and we’ll get on the football and all the other stuff that we do around here. And especially, I give these tickets out, and they’re, you have a big New York promotion. We talked about that last week, and I was in New York, but baseball, I’ve been talking baseball longer than I’ve talked football. Right? People think of me as a Ravens guy or whatever, even though Aparicio, but I go back 33 years here. You know, 9293 9490 but we don’t have any football here to talk about. We did Friday football frenzies. We pick games. We picked sometimes just winners, sometimes against spreads. Spreads weren’t what they were today, and Jimmy the Greek and and nobody could talk about it and all of that. But baseball was something when you and I started discussing this, and it started rolling out in the last three or four years to become casino mobile, all of that, that baseball could move wagering in any way, and having sat here watched a few seasons a big Poppy with the hose and the advertising and where it all is, I really do wonder if the Orioles had gone on a run last month locally in Maryland. I can’t help but think the number would even be larger. Would you I mean, just to equate what success would mean, even with baseball, because I think people would get frenzy that play. If the Orioles played 12 more games and had won a series or two and played in the World Series, it would greatly affect the numbers. Would it not? Oh,
John Martin 06:52
there’s, there’s no doubt. And yeah, and some of that probably was in play with the anti Yankee sentiment, but you’re right. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 07:01
fun to bet against the Yankees. Yeah, I like that,
John Martin 07:05
but you’re right. Had, HAD, they had, they stuck in it for a round or two, and, you know, dare I say, even made it into the into the World Series? Sure, you would have seen that, that that growth.
Nestor Aparicio 07:17
Sure, that’s something I had my arms around three years ago, right? Like it’s not even something that this is probably the first time I’ve said it out loud to you, and you and I talk every week, and it’s part of the fun of our relationship in the in the front facing, part of this is that I learn, and then our audience learns, because none of this, all of this wasn’t on the up and up before. Now that it’s on the up and up, we can talk about where the money goes. And I get emails on that, you get emails on that, you know, and we and we discuss that all the time, four or five times a year, we discuss one 800 gambler and people, if you have a problem, but this is real, it’s here. It’s here to stay. And the sports part of it that is really moved this forward, and the mobile part and the numbers honestly had two years ago, even at Mako, when this was all starting, did you know you were going to have October numbers like this? I mean, where were the projections in your industry, and what you had seen in Jersey and other places, versus what the reality is? Because I do feel like you’re not a boastful or person. You just come with the numbers, but I do feel like there’s a little part of this where even you’re a little shocked by like, this is a big number this month, and it feels like you’re not bragging about it. You’re just feeling like, Hey, this is a big number. Maybe I didn’t even know that would be this kind
John Martin 08:29
of number. You are correct. Esther, I am, if nothing else, a humble man, you
Nestor Aparicio 08:33
try. Except when it comes to the browns and the
John Martin 08:36
that’s a whole another that’s a whole another discussion. But you’re right. I mean, as we look at it, sure you have projections, because, you know, first and foremost, transparency. We are a state agency and and the expectations are, we will be generating revenue for in case of sports wagering, the the blueprint for Maryland’s Future Fund, so some very important education programs that are expecting the maximum return on that. And, you know, we try to do things within the guardrails of responsible gaming and making sure people have a plan. They stay with it, and they they bet with their head, not with their heart, and they’ve got a budget and a timeline, and they and they and they manage to that. But yet, at the end of the day, when we’re counting up all the nickels and dimes we were obligated to, to deliver that to the state. And no, we we to the person, I suppose, if you were to get us one on one, yeah, we’re we’re exceeding our expectations, and hopefully we’re exceeding it again, responsibly. We’re managing growth where, where we can, and making sure people are educated and informed, and that’s why we have these conversations and and point out things as the you know, guidelines that they can get resources one 800 gambler is prominent in all that we do, lottery, casino wagering and sports wagering. And we hope that people that they feel the need, or if they know someone who is. In trouble, make, make a phone call, because there’s that, that secondary level of family, friends, co workers, that can be impacted by by that as well. And there’s
Nestor Aparicio 10:09
all sorts of things up at Baltimore positive in the repository, underneath John Martin’s face and the Maryland lottery logo, everything’s there. Last thing on this, and a little bit of revision as to what we talked about last week with the commanders and them having a facility inside their facility. Listen to last week for that, but for football and for mobile and college football and weekends and everything, the numbers on the mobile side versus the front of house casino, I’m going to go to Hollywood, MGM, any of the places we go horseshoe and bet in house, that number’s never going anywhere, right? Like it’s wildly mobile. And that is a little that’s been a shocking thing industry wise. Even I would think to some of the casinos that would think like bricks and mortar used to be the way this was. We’re just in a different world. In the same way that I’m doing Music Week next week. This is my plug for my music week, in the same way that, you know, CDs, Napster downloading music, the online part of wagering and the responsible part of things, the app that will turn you off if you’re being foolish, and warn you, and just different things that come with mobile. It’s just been a bigger part of how this handle gets bigger, right? That mobile has been the way people are doing this, quite frankly,
John Martin 11:33
last month, and it’s been this way for probably the second month we started, 97% of the wagers and action comes through mobile access. 3% 93% are people actually in the retail sports books. Am I crazy
Nestor Aparicio 11:51
to think the number was 8515? And some thoughts, 567, like when I first started hearing I also heard 9010 at various points, but thinking that the threshold would never be 97 I mean, that’s just a I don’t say it’s but it’s just factual, and I think it makes all the sense in the world, the way I have seen people when they’re wagering or even discussing it. It’s on the phone. It really is. It
John Martin 12:17
has been that way. It’s certainly not going to go back. You can’t put the the genie back in the bottle at this point. So it’s going to force people to, particularly on the on the sports book side, to make sure they’ve got the resources aligned properly and profitably. You know, no one’s suggesting that the people in the sports books industry to to fail. We want them all to succeed. They’re all our partners, and right now we have about 24 combined retail and mobile so we want all of them to be successful. And the reality is, over time, and we’ve already seen it in our market, people make some tough business decisions. And these are people that are multinational companies. They’re not just mom and pops. These are people that are leaving the North American market. They may have been European or Australian based and saying, You know what, we just can’t make a go that once you get past the top three or four, you know, and we all know who they are, by name, it’s really tough to get market share, and that’s going to be an interesting dynamic going forward. John
Nestor Aparicio 13:18
Martin is here. He is the executive director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming. We’ve done a lot of gaming. We do some lottery. Speaking of places, Green Mountain station, we’re gonna be up Hampstead next week. I think my friend Karen Fauci was going to come out. We’re gonna talk about leadership, amongst other things. Also gonna talk a little horse racing. Our friends at the Maryland lottery will have some Raven scratch offs to give away, as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care, who put Luke back and forth to Pittsburgh this week, full coverage of the ravens and the Steelers, and full post game with Seth Elkin next week from the Maryland lottery, who’s our resident penguins and pirates fan, amongst other things. Um, on the on the Raven side and the scratch off side, we get closer to this New York trip. We get closer to all of this. I give these things away. Um, you have a whole litany of real not just holiday scratch offs, but thanks winning. I just like saying that, like I like to say how to win, and all your little fun holiday things, but a whole bunch of things you got going on above and beyond sports wagering, football and the fun stuff that we do on the weekends around here, on the scratch off space and the holiday space that are traditional lottery things, and they don’t smell this year, we have non scented tickets this year.
John Martin 14:26
Yes, that’s correct, and people go to MD lottery.com to check a variety of promotions. It’s fun because of the holidays that we know happen every year, so we can plan for that. But it’s also fun when we can establish some new things with some new partners, and I’m real pleased to to introduce that we have a promotion with our friends at giant their grocery stores. That is a Mega Millions promotion for second chance. So if you purchase $10 worth of Mega Millions on one ticket, that is your entry. You. Into a second chance drawing. And all the details are at MD lottery.com that that promotion will run for the next several weeks. It’s a entry per $10 so if you bought a $10 Mega Millions ticket, that’s one entry, you buy a 20 million or $20 Mega Millions tickets, that’s two entries, and so on. And eventually, over the course of the next several weeks, starting next week, we’ll have eight winners of cash prizes in a giant gift card. So eight winners of a $250 giant gift card will be next week, and then for the next several weeks after that, and then at the midpoint, around December 15, we’ll have $4,000 giant gift card winners, and then at the end of the promotion in January, to 1500 giant gift card winners. So with holiday plans, everyone wanted to go out and get their their their pantry stock for the upcoming holidays, what better way than to be a winner of a giant gift card to help in that.
Nestor Aparicio 16:02
It sounds like it’s a feast of prizes. John Martin,
John Martin 16:05
I like what you did there. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 16:07
Well, I’m reading right off of MD lottery. It’s a feast of prizes. Play any draw game for your chance to win. Thanks winning. We have thanks winning, and then we have fun fast and festive. Enter holiday fast play tickets for second chance to win cash. And this is what I like. It says on here. It’s a winning Wonderland, the reindeer riches and the merry money match.
John Martin 16:30
You know, those, those
Nestor Aparicio 16:31
are days allow creative people to be more creative. Well, oh, holiday fun. You know?
John Martin 16:39
I think it’s a little I think someone’s spiking the eggnog too, but that, that’s a whole other conversation for another day. But you’re right. If you can go to MD lottery.com and look under our fast play lineup, you will see we have three fast play tickets, the $1 reindeer riches, the $5 merry money match, and the $10 winning Wonderland. Yes, Alliteration is live and well and thriving at the Maryland lottery. Well, we
Nestor Aparicio 17:07
will be doing the Maryland crab cake tour, and I will have these Raven scratch offs to give away at Cocos on December 4, and it’ll be a ho ho holiday time. I started a tradition with Marcella there because she has the eggnog you were speaking of prior to and it’s delicious. And I bet she’s already mixing the batch up right now with those crab cakes over there. And so I kick off the holiday edition of the Maryland crab cake tour with spiked eggnog. And she usually gets a little tipsy, and we play some holiday music and sing some songs. It all started with Edwin mulitalo at the barn back in the 90s in the ukulele. But we love the holidays here. You love the holidays here. Um, let’s get back to Raven scratch offs, because I give these away. And people not only come up and say, Do you have the app to scan it? Did I win? And I either see the balloons go off and congrats, you’re a winner, or, well, I get to play that song for them. I give these out and they they’re still like, big prizes left for this, right? Oh,
John Martin 18:08
absolutely. Again, you can go to MD lottery.com and check out the winning prizes, or the prizes still available for either the $10 Raven scratch off or the $2 Raven scratch off, plenty of cash prizes in both of those. But again, the reminder is, if you have a non winning scratch off ticket, you may enter them into my lottery rewards our loyalty program and be eligible for some amazing Second Chance prices during the season. We’re always looking at in game promotions, as well as some special events coming up. You talked about our trip to New York coming up the middle of December, where we have three lucky winners already set. I think they’re in uniform. I think they’re taped up. They’re
Nestor Aparicio 18:49
ready to go. And I’ve said it before, expect to eat. That’s all I’m going to say. You’re going to be very well fed on this trip. And you know, if you need some recommendations, I was in New York last week, if they don’t feed you enough. I mean, I don’t even want to give people on this trip recommendations, because they’re already going to have enough to eat. I They don’t. They don’t need to know about my favorite pizza place on 28th and Broadway. They don’t need to know that next time they go, because you got New York, you fall in love with New York, trust me,
John Martin 19:15
some people, some people do. Some people, maybe not so much. We have to, we have to be open minded
Nestor Aparicio 19:21
here. Nestor, not everyone introvert, does New York is that for you? You know, I’m
John Martin 19:26
from the the countryside of Cleveland, Ohio.
Nestor Aparicio 19:31
You just haven’t seen my New York is what, you know, that’s what, that’s possible. You
19:34
know that is quite possible. That is you think,
Nestor Aparicio 19:37
you think I wouldn’t be fun to hang out with the New York. I mean, we’re talking museums, we’re talking pigeons, we’re talking pastries, everything I
John Martin 19:44
love. You know, I didn’t think about we may have another opportunity here. Maybe, maybe what we got to do is offer a second chance prize, where you host a New York trip.
Nestor Aparicio 19:55
You know what? I’m going to put that in the 2025 package. Created some. We’re gonna do a promotion. Go to New York summer in New York, when that will walk through Central Park. You go to Central Park in the middle, in the back, you don’t even know you’re in New York. You don’t, can’t even see the buildings. I’ve done this. There’s ducks and birds and things
John Martin 20:14
embarrassed too, but we’re not gonna talk about that there. There are, yeah, that may, maybe we’ve just created something here.
Nestor Aparicio 20:21
There’s giants and jets and Rangers. Oh, my, oh my. John Martin is here. He’s the Executive Director of all things Maryland, lottery gaming, and we have gone off the rails in his sports wagering, scratch off environment with all this holiday winning, um, Mega Millions. Last thing for you, that’s that thing’s about the change, right? And I will do a longer thing on it, but there’s always creativity. When there’s numbers, math, government reporting, it’s all on the up and up, but you’re trying. They’re not you. They are trying to change the game a little bit next year, right?
John Martin 20:55
Or the better, right? Now, the reminder is, as we speak, the the Mega Millions jackpot, the game that people know is well into triple digits knocking on the door of almost $400 million for four Mega Millions. So watch MD lottery.com or your local retailer, and see how that jackpot can can grow. But along the first week of April, we will bring this current game to a close and transition to a newly engineered, bigger, better, faster game where jackpots will start at $50 million right now they start at 20 they will increment at a higher rate, and hopefully the chance to get more millionaires and billionaires, because
Nestor Aparicio 21:41
20 million wouldn’t be enough for me, right? You know what I mean? Like,
John Martin 21:44
yeah, yeah. Well, my wife
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
hits 380, 7 million that I’m seeing here or more, because it’ll be more by the time she hits it. Tell Seth, I don’t care if the Ravens win or lose. I won’t be here next Wednesday if she hits it. Wow.
John Martin 21:56
You know what that that’s an interesting thought. Maybe Seth will have to do both sides of this. So Luke will probably be available. Well, Luke will be
Nestor Aparicio 22:05
available if the Ravens win, if the Steelers win. I don’t, you know, we all might, it might be a really long week next week, if that happens. Render and it’s fun, though, it’s fun talking football with you. Football season. I, you know, I think the commanders thing has made it more fun. We talked about that last week. We talked about the big numbers. Please do this stuff responsibly. We we kid. We have fun. It is fun to play. It’s fun to win. I watch people win all the time. I don’t watch them lose, and sometimes the losses amount and there are problems. And if there are one 800 gambler is the way to make that happen? There’s all sorts of ways to to address that, even though we’re addressing what the windfall has been for the blueprint for Maryland and the education fund. And I spend a lot of time with politicians, discussing where that money goes. And a lot of folks out of Baltimore positive. We talk about education around here as well. In the back end of an election, John, did I get everything in? Did I leave anything you guys doing events, or anything we spinning wheels? It’s a kind of a weird week with thanksgiving and stuff, because there aren’t as many events, and the events tend to be and you’re from Cleveland, what high school you went to? Where’s the Calvert Hall thing or the curly thing, or when’s the reunion? That’s a little bit more. What’s going on here the next couple weeks as we trim up the tree, as they say, people can
John Martin 23:13
check our event calendar at MD, lottery.com coming up here yet in the month of November, we turn our focus on college football, and we have the Terps and Rutgers on November 16 at College Park. And then November 23 the Morgan State bears hosting the Howard bison. I’d be kidding if I knew what the line was on that game. But that’s not the point. The point is we’ll be there. You can come out and spin the wheel and have some wheel and have some fun. And it’s also great for us to get out, not only in College Park, but we also, throughout both basketball and football seasons, try to support a number of the other colleges and universities. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 23:55
as we record this year, midweek, it was really cold, and I’m thinking, like going at the Morgan State football, if it’s going to be cold that you could you’re right in your Cocos when we’re doing the show the crab cake tour on the fourth of December. And I’m wondering, like, I was going to be funny because you were being alliterative earlier, and I’m trying to be clever today, even though I don’t have much. I mean, I got no guy. You know, it’s late in the game and I’m losing my fastball. But I wonder, could you get Coco hot cocoa and Coco’s. But I don’t, I don’t even know if she has Coco, Coco’s pub. So I I’m gonna have to wait on you. I know she has spiked eggnog on December 4. I know that John Martin is here. He has all things, uh, responsibility on, uh, Maryland lottery. He’s executive director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming, and has reported in on sports wagering numbers, casino numbers, all that stuff’s available in MD lottery.com including winners, winners and more winners and fun stuff. Next week, Seth Elkins, going to be here? Well, I hope you have a good Thanksgiving, if I don’t talk to you between now and then, I hope we do get together for some mince meat pie and some pumpkin pie two weeks from now. But big game ravens pitch for. Middle of the season like this. It’s um, it’s fun, it’s football. Please play responsibly if you are wagering out there. And my thanks to John Martin all of his work. Also up at the front of Baltimore positive. I am Nestor, the Maryland crab cake tore back out on the road with Raven scratch offs. Next Thursday will be a green mount station in Amster, talking all things Turkey and gravy and crab cakes. I’m Nestor. We are wnsda. I’m 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.
