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Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia took home 19 first-place trophies in Casino Player magazine’s 2026 Best of Gaming Awards, the most of any property in The Cordish Companies’ national portfolio.
The Stadium District casino also claimed the Player’s Choice Award for Pennsylvania, meaning it pulled more reader votes than any other casino in the state. The property carries more than 2,000 slot machines, upward of 130 table games, and the FanDuel Sportsbook and Lounge inside a 208-room hotel, the kind of scale that gave it a shot at nearly every category on the ballot.
Best Betting Options. Best Prop Bets. Best Video Slots. Best Blackjack, Best Roulette, and Best Craps. The wins ran from the casino floor to the sportsbook to the hotel lobby.
The Cordish Companies announced the full results Sept. 14 from Baltimore. Across Maryland, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Virginia, the company’s Live! properties combined for more than 100 honors, including 44 first-place finishes, in this year’s competition. Casino Player has run its reader-voted contest for nearly three decades, and it remains one of the industry’s most closely watched measures of which casinos players actually prefer, category by category.
Nineteen first-place wins is not a one-year spike. Philadelphia took 15 first-place awards, out of 26 total, in 2024, the last time the competition produced a detailed public count for the property. Four more trophies, two years further into the property’s run.
Maryland and Louisiana add to the haul
Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland, the flagship property that has anchored the brand since 2012, matched the Player’s Choice honor in its own state. It added first-place finishes for Best Suites, Best Live Poker, Best Table Games, and Best Overall Sportsbook, among others.
Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana, which opened in 2025, kept adding to its own case. First-place wins for Best Reel Slots, Best Promotions, Best Blackjack, and Best Roulette followed.
Suzanne Trout, executive VP and chief marketing officer of Cordish Gaming Group, said:
“We are honored that our guests across the Live! portfolio have recognized our properties and team members once again in the Best of Gaming Awards. From our established resort destinations in Maryland and Pennsylvania to our growing presence in Louisiana and Virginia, our team members bring the Live! standard of hospitality to life every day.”
Virginia’s early returns
The newest name on the list is Live! Casino Virginia. The temporary Petersburg facility opened Jan. 23 in partnership with Bruce Smith Enterprise, the development firm founded by the Pro Football Hall of Famer and Virginia businessman. Within months, it had first-place wins of its own: Best Dealers and Casino Where You Feel the Luckiest.
That’s a small return next to Philadelphia’s 19. It’s also the first evidence, gathered from actual players rather than a press release, that whatever Cordish built at the Stadium District travels. Construction continues next door on the permanent Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia, slated to open in Central Virginia in 2027 with more than 1,600 slot machines, over 60 table games, and a 200-room hotel.
Philadelphia’s own numbers are the reminder of where that build leads. Nineteen trophies this year. Fifteen two years earlier. The Stadium District keeps adding to the case, and Pennsylvania’s gaming crowd keeps voting for more of it.
