'We follow the Pareto Principle very much in the gaming business. 'You see our monthly revenues, you can attribute nearly all of it to our loyalty base,' Norton said. Retaining their top-tier gamblers is essential to Live and other casinos. 'From a marketing standpoint, you basically have a very solid five-to-10-year plan and you don't fire all of your bullets at one time.'

'When we first opened, our loyalty program was fairly lean,' said Mario Maesano, the casino's senior vice president for marketing. Perks include everything from free soft drinks and birthday promotions to personal casino hosts, rounds of golf, limousine service, resort trips and tickets to sporting events. It has expanded its loyalty program from one tier to six and claims to have more than a million members. In the last five years, Maryland's Live, which has about 3,000 employees, has added new restaurants and more table games while dropping several hundred slot machines. It's giving away five Tesla automobiles during June to mark its fifth anniversary. Owner David Cordish occasionally appears on the casino floor and hands out $100 bills to guests. The Hanover casino has sought to distinguish itself with progressive jackpots and promotions such as giving away a licensed replica of the Batmobile from the 1960s-era 'Batman' television show and a replica of the DeLorean time machine from the 'Back to the Future' movies. Others are slated for Philadelphia, where Cordish is developing a casino in the stadium district, and Arlington, Texas, where it is creating an entertainment district adjacent to a new ballpark for the Texas Rangers. The company said the hotel will be the first of many new hotels featuring the 'Live!' brand. The moniker is intended to reinforce the Cordish brand 'Live!' and emphasize the addition of the hotel, expected to open in 2018. The changes include the new name, which was rolled out with little fanfare at the hotel groundbreaking in September and still isn't in popular use.

Live has sought to adapt to the marketplace. 'We knew when opened up that there would be a lot of curiosity about the facility,' said Robert Norton, president of Cordish Global Gaming Group. Live is located about a dozen miles from Horseshoe and about 35 miles from MGM. The state received $510 million in revenue sharing from casinos in the last fiscal year, making it Maryland's fourth-largest source of funds after income, sales and corporate taxes.

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