HANOVER, Md. (CBSDC) - Maryland Live! Casino unlocked its doors for the last time Thursday morning.

The passage of ballot ‘Question 7’ in Nov. now allows the casino to operate on 24-hour, 7-days a week basis.

Under previous law, the casino in Anne Arundel County was forced to shut down at 2 a.m. on weekdays, and 4 a.m. on weekends, but the newly passed legislation puts an end to those restrictions.

Critics fear the extended hours will encourage gambling addicts to gamble more, but the casino’s vice president of marketing says that late-night crowd doesn’t want to go home.

“Twenty-four hour gaming is pretty much the norm everywhere,” Mario Maesano said. “So we’re just kind of falling in line with the rest of the country.”

The extended hours make it the first casino in Maryland to operate without closing, and Question 7 also paves the way for the installation of 150 table games.

“We’ll start moving stuff around here in the next week and a half, two weeks,” said Maesano. “And the transition will occur from pretty much January through the spring.”