MGM Resorts chief executive Jim Murren forcefully proclaimed to the nation’s capital at the MGM National Harbor opening ceremony Thursday morning that his company and the gaming industry have come of age and are now forces to be reckoned with politically and economically.
From center stage of his property’s state-of-the-art, 3,000 seat theater, he touted his company’s and his industry’s record as both an economic engine and a corporate citizen, highlighting them as local and national leaders on the job creation, community development and environmental sustainability fronts.
“We are a force to be reckoned with not only economically but politically. We are twice as big as the steel industry…we are bigger than the airline industry,” Murren proclaimed to an audience of area business and political leaders, highlighting the industry’s “army” of 1.8 million people.
“We are a big, important industry, and our jobs are every bit as patriotic as any other kind of job in the United States,” he said.
MGM’s $1.4 billion National Harbor property has created roughly 6,000 temporary construction jobs, 4,000 permanent jobs and injected $323 million into the regional economy via local vendors and construction businesses.
Of the permanent jobs created, roughly half of those workers will come from Prince George’s County, one of the more economically distressed regions of the Washington metro area.
The jobs his industry creates, Murren stressed, are not simply low-paying or dead end service jobs, but rather 300-400 different types of work across the blue to white collar spectrum. These jobs, he said, are well paying, offer sound benefits and a pathway for lower-skilled workers to the middle class and the chance to build a career.
In a nod to his company’s status as a committed corporate citizen, Murren noted how MGM had already made $1 million in charitable donations to Prince George’s County non-profits and will continue to donate an additional $400,000 per year moving ahead.
Murren also proclaimed that his company has consistently gone above and beyond what it has promised to deliver.
“We made those promises to the state. We made those promises to the county. We keep our promises at MGM,” he said.
Murren also elaborated on his broader vision for the property, harkening back to the first time he saw the site on the Potomac River – just south of Washington, DC – where he pondered what he could do to make the site come alive while incorporating the local heritage.
Reflecting on the contentious Question 7 ballot referendum in 2012 that permitted the property’s birth, he recalled his efforts to convince voters “to not just accept convenience gaming,” but rather to “build an international destination – something you could be proud of, something that would drive business to the state, and something that would be uniquely it’s own in Maryland. Not something from Las Vegas, or Macau or anywhere else, but uniquely Prince George’s County.”
Murren was joined at the opening ceremony a host of local officials including Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Maryland Senate president Mike Miller, and Prince George’s County executive Rushern Baker.
MGM officials lauded Hogan and Miller in particular as being instrumental in the project’s completion.
Hogan pointed to the property as a shiny example of his efforts to make the state more friendly to business and investment.
“It is particularly exciting to see a world-renowned brand like MGM make significant investments in
Prince George’s County and Maryland,” Hogan said. “Our administration has been proud to support the project.”
