Live Casino & Hotel will fund nearly $19 million in grants to Anne Arundel County organizations this fiscal year, casino and county officials said Monday.
The annual awards were unveiled in a ceremony at the casino’s Live Event Center. In all, 35 programs and initiatives will share in $18.8 million. State law authorizing casinos in Maryland requires Live to reserve 4.51% of its revenue from slot machines for the grants.
The Local Development Council manages the allocation of the funds, which are available to county agencies as well as nonprofit organizations and community groups working within a 3-mile radius of the casino. The money will be distributed through Anne Arundel County’s fiscal 2020 budget.
Counting the latest awards, the local impact grants have totaled more than $130 million in the seven years since Live Casino opened. The Cordish Cos., Live’s developer, added a hotel adjacent to the casino in June 2018. At Monday’s event, Cordish Cos. Principal Joe Weinberg said the latest addition to the property, an expansion of the Live Event Center, is coming soon. The 4,000-seat venue will have enough room to host local high school and college graduations — long a goal for Anne Arundel County, which supported the event center’s expansion through an agreement waiving property taxes on the hotel and conference center for 30 years.