Washington Has No Casino. It Has One 20 Minutes Away, Three More on the MARC Line, and a West Virginia Racetrack You Can Only Reach by Train in the Afternoon
Maryland's six casinos won $159.7 million in October 2026 and the two nearest Washington took $125.6 million of it. The District itself has sports betting and nothing else, Virginia's governor vetoed a Tysons casino in April, and the MARC timetable decides which of the rest you can reach without a car.
Published 2026-11-09.
Maryland's six casinos won $159,747,206 from their customers in October 2026, and $125.6 million of it was taken by the two within 45 minutes of the Capitol. MGM National Harbor, 10.9 miles from Metro Center, won $66.2 million; Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland, by the Arundel Mills mall, won $59.4 million. Washington has no casino of its own, and after Governor Spanberger vetoed a Fairfax County casino bill on April 9, 2026, Northern Virginia will not have one either.
So the question for a Washingtonian is not whether to leave the District but how far, and whether the train goes there. This ranking is by free-flow driving time from Metro Center, with the transit option alongside from the operators' own timetables, read on November 9, 2026. Beltway traffic makes every drive time a floor.
MGM National Harbor is 20 minutes by car and a Green Line ride to Suitland plus the P94 bus; it is the biggest casino by revenue in the mid-Atlantic and the one with $55-a-night-class pricing to match. Live! Maryland is 45 minutes by car or a 40-minute MARC ride to BWI plus a cab, open around the clock, with 4,000 machines and a 52-table poker room. Horseshoe Baltimore is 55 minutes by car or a MARC and light-rail combination. Hollywood Perryville is the one you can reach entirely by train, weekdays only. Charles Town's MARC service runs toward West Virginia only in the evening and back only in the morning. Ocean Downs and Rocky Gap are road trips. Our casinos near Washington page has the distances; this post has the schedules.
MGM National Harbor: 20 minutes, and the biggest floor in the region
MGM National Harbor opened on December 8, 2016 at a cost of $1.4 billion, with 135,000 square feet of casino, a 23-story hotel of 308 rooms and a 4,800-car garage. VICI Properties owns the building and MGM runs it. In October it ran 2,209 slot machines and 214 tables, 161 of them banked and 53 poker, and its table revenue of $24 million was more than every other Maryland casino's combined; slot win was $42.2 million. Its total was down 2.6 percent on the year, a dip rather than a trend.
The drive from Metro Center is 10.9 miles and about 20 minutes with no traffic, across the Wilson Bridge approach or down Indian Head Highway. Transit changed in June 2025, when WMATA's network redesign folded the old NH1 and NH2 National Harbor buses into two routes: the P94, which runs every 12 minutes between Suitland station on the Green Line and National Harbor along MGM National Avenue, and the P90 from Suitland via Oxon Hill to King Street in Alexandria. So the rail connection is Suitland, not Branch Avenue, and the fare is a Metro fare of $2.25 to $6.75 plus a $2.25 bus. MGM's own parking and directions pages refused our tools, and we are not going to quote a garage rate we did not see; the National Harbor public garages next door run $5 for 90 minutes to $25 for the day. Our Live! vs MGM comparison goes deeper on the property; the short version is that this is the regional flagship, with MGM Rewards that travel to Las Vegas, and it prices accordingly.
Live! Maryland: 45 minutes, or a MARC train and a cab
Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland at Arundel Mills is the volume casino. It had 3,531 slot machines in October, the most in the state, and 181 tables including 52 poker tables in a room the casino says is one of the largest on the East Coast; slot win was $42.3 million and tables $17.1 million, down 0.4 percent on the year. It is "open 24/7/365," has a 17-story hotel of 310 rooms and 52 suites, a six-story garage for 5,000 cars that is free for hotel guests and for mall shoppers during mall hours, and an Orchid Gaming & Smoking Patio, which matters because Maryland's casinos are otherwise smoke-free indoors.
It is 27.3 miles and about 45 minutes from Metro Center, up the Baltimore–Washington Parkway. By train, MARC's Penn Line runs from Union Station to BWI Rail Station in 40 to 42 minutes for $7, with weekend service; the station is 5.4 miles from the casino and we found no published shuttle, so the last leg is a cab or rideshare. The casino's own directions page was unavailable. For a player without a car, that cab is the difference between Live! and MGM, because MGM's last mile is a frequent bus.
Baltimore: Horseshoe, and a venue that may finally open
By train, MARC's Penn Line reaches Baltimore Penn Station in 1 hour 14 minutes for $9 and Amtrak does it in 30 to 46 minutes for considerably more; from Penn Station the Light RailLink's Penn–Camden shuttle runs to Hamburg Street, by M&T Bank Stadium, which is a short walk to the casino, for $2. MARC's Camden Line stops at Camden Station a mile from the door but runs only on weekdays and only in the commuter direction. The Paramount Baltimore concert hall next to the casino, under construction since 2020 and stalled for two years by a contractor lawsuit, is in its final stages and scheduled to host its first shows by December 2026.
The ones the train actually reaches, and the ones it does not
Virginia, the District, and the ranking
Virginia has five casinos and none is near Washington. Live! Casino Virginia in Petersburg, the newest, opened a temporary casino in January 2026 with more than 900 slots and over 30 tables, 134 miles and about 2 hours 40 minutes south; its permanent casino, with 1,600 slots, 70 tables, a 35-table poker room and a 200-room hotel, topped out on October 8, 2026 and is due in late 2027. Norfolk's interim gaming hall, now branded Blue Chip Norfolk under Boyd Gaming, is open 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. about 195 miles away, with a permanent casino promised for 2027. Rivers Portsmouth is 199 miles, Caesars Virginia in Danville 250 and Hard Rock Bristol 379. The Tysons casino that would have changed this map died with the governor's veto of SB 756; she said "local governing boards should lead on proposed casino development." Our Virginia guide ranks the five.
The District has legal sports betting and no casino, a situation our Vermont and DC post explains, and Maryland's 2026 attempt to add online casino gaming was withdrawn by its sponsor on March 13 without a vote.
| Casino | Drive from Metro Center, no traffic | Transit | October 2026 win |
|---|---|---|---|
| MGM National Harbor | 10.9 mi, 20 min | Green Line to Suitland, P94 bus every 12 min | $66.2M |
| Live! Maryland, Hanover | 27.3 mi, 45 min | MARC Penn Line to BWI 40–42 min, $7, then 5.4 mi cab | $59.4M |
| Horseshoe Baltimore | 36.7 mi, 55 min | MARC to Penn Station 74 min, $9, or Amtrak 30–46 min; light rail to Hamburg St | $14.0M |
| Hollywood Charles Town, WV | 63.3 mi, 94 min | MARC Brunswick Line, evenings out and mornings back only, $13, plus 6–8 mi cab | n/a (WV) |
| Hollywood Perryville | 77.1 mi, 106 min | MARC Penn Line weekdays, 1 h 43 min to 2 h 11 min, $13, plus 2.6 mi cab | $7.1M |
| Rocky Gap, Flintstone | 126 mi, 155 min | None | $4.7M |
| Ocean Downs, Berlin | about 130 mi, 3 h | None | $8.4M |
| Live! Casino Virginia, Petersburg | 134 mi, 161 min | None practical | n/a (VA) |
The usual advice is to go to MGM because it is closest and the nicest. It is both, and it is also the most expensive room and the tightest floor for a low roller, which is why Live! Maryland takes more coin through its machines with a smaller table business. For a player with a car and a $25 blackjack budget, the 25 extra minutes to Arundel Mills buy free parking, a bigger poker room and a smoking patio. For a player without a car, MGM is the only one with a frequent bus to the door, and that settles it. For anyone planning around a train, Perryville on a weekday is the one trip that works end to end, and the Charles Town timetable is a reason to book the Inn. If gambling has stopped being a cost you set in advance, 1-800-GAMBLER is free and confidential.
Topics
- washington-dc
- maryland
- baltimore
- transit
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