Gambling in Maryland: a brief history
Maryland's gambling history runs through three legislative milestones. The 2008 referendum legalized slot-machine casinos, the 2012 referendum added table games and a sixth casino license, and the 2020 referendum legalized sports betting. Retail sportsbooks launched in December 2021 and mobile sportsbooks launched in November 2022. The state now hosts six casinos: MGM National Harbor in Prince George's County, Live! Casino in Hanover, Horseshoe Baltimore, Hollywood Perryville in Cecil County, Ocean Downs near Berlin, and Rocky Gap in Allegany County. The geographic spread means few Maryland residents live more than an hour from a casino, and the 2022 mobile-sportsbook launch closed the remaining distance for everyone with a phone.
SMART Recovery in Maryland
SMART Recovery, which uses cognitive behavioral therapy tools, rational emotive behavior techniques, and motivational interviewing, established its first Maryland meetings in the early 2010s, primarily in the Baltimore metro and the D.C. suburbs. SMART's Maryland presence is smaller than its presence in some neighboring states, with around 11 active meetings statewide that explicitly include gambling as a focus area. Most Maryland SMART meetings are general addiction-focused groups that welcome people working on gambling alongside alcohol, opioid, or other behavioral concerns. SMART's compatibility with clinical treatment makes it a frequent complement to outpatient care, and several Maryland Center of Excellence-trained clinicians refer patients to SMART when the 12-step model is not a fit. About half of Maryland's SMART meetings are online, reflecting both the program's national Zoom infrastructure and the geographic reality of Maryland's Eastern Shore and Western counties.
State-funded recovery resources
Maryland's gambling-treatment infrastructure works in parallel with SMART rather than through it. The Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore runs clinician training, research, and the state voluntary-exclusion program. It administers the Maryland Problem Gambling Helpline through the 1-800-GAMBLER national number. The Maryland Council on Problem Gambling, at mdgamblinghelp.org, lists state-credentialed providers, many of whom integrate SMART's CBT-based toolset into their outpatient programs. State-funded gambling treatment is available at no cost for qualifying Maryland residents, paid through casino-revenue contributions. SMART meetings themselves are free, but they are not the state's official treatment channel: they are a peer-support layer that pairs well with clinical care.
Maryland state helpline · 24/7 confidential
1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537)Operated by the Maryland Council on Problem Gambling
What recovery looks like in Maryland
Maryland's SMART community attracts a recognizable subset of the gambling-recovery population: people who want a science-based, secular framework, often clinicians or professionals familiar with cognitive behavioral therapy from their own work or prior treatment. Many Maryland SMART attendees are simultaneously working with a state-credentialed outpatient counselor, using SMART's worksheets and tools as between-session practice. The D.C.-suburb counties, with a high concentration of federal employees and contractors, have an above-average appetite for SMART's evidence-based framing. SMART's lack of a higher-power requirement is a meaningful draw for people who tried Gamblers Anonymous and found the spiritual framing uncomfortable, though many Marylanders attend both programs and treat them as complementary rather than exclusive. The 2022 mobile-sportsbook launch in Maryland has reshaped the demographic of new SMART attendees over the last few years, with more sports-betting stories and a younger average age in meetings near the casino corridors.
11 SMART Recovery meetings in Maryland
See the live meeting map filtered to SMART Recovery on the live meeting map, or open the full SMART Recovery hub at /meetings/smart/.