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To bring the casino to this site, MGM invested heavily in a campaign to encourage voters to support a 2012 initiative allowing table games in the county and at other locations in the state that already had slot machine parlors. The majority of Prince George’s County voters also had to approve the initiative, which was aimed at National Harbor, to pave the way for MGM. After the initiative passed, a casino opened at Rocky Gap, in western Maryland, in 2013 and another, in Baltimore, in 2014.

Rushern L. Baker III, the Prince George’s county executive, recalled that when he took office in 2010, “clearly, the county was facing a lot of issues both from a perception standpoint but also from a revenue standpoint.”

Photo Table games at the resort at National Harbor that will open this week. Credit Andrew Mangum for The New York Times

MGM pledged to hire 40 percent of its permanent workers and 20 percent of construction workers from the county, and to contract with minority-owned businesses for at least 30 percent of construction work, with 12 percent from within the county. “So far, they are meeting the goals,” Mr. Baker said.

Whiting-Turner, the general contractor, is based in Baltimore. Tobar Construction is in Beltsville, in Prince George’s, as is Toya Mitchell, whose firm, Lord & Mitchell, a minority female-owned small business, has provided marketing materials.

In addition, MGM has spent $4 million to renovate a vacant nearby public school, which it used as a training and hiring center and will be returning to the community.

Photo Ginger is one of the restaurants that will open at the resort. Chefs are preparing for opening on Thursday. Credit Andrew Mangum for The New York Times

The 125,00-square-foot casino will be open 24 hours a day, and has more than 3,300 slot machines, 126 gambling tables and 39 poker tables. Besides the casino and hotel, the resort has a 5,000-space garage, a 27,000-square-foot spa and 10 restaurants, including Fish, led by the chef José Andrés, and Steak House by the brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio of “Top Chef.”

Among the shops is the first stand-alone boutique for shoes and accessories by Sarah Jessica Parker, who promises to be stocking shelves and meeting customers several times before starting work in February on the second season of her HBO show, “Divorce.”

Her Italian-made shoes will sell for $250 to $495, and her shop will also carry her line of bags and her fragrance, Lovely. “Its close proximity to D.C. is a great draw,” she said. “I’m nervous, but everybody says I should be excited.”

Photo An abstract map of the capital region, above the hotel reception desk, was created by a local artist, Margaret Boozer. The red clay came from the excavation for the resort. Credit Andrew Mangum for The New York Times

To enhance the property’s aesthetics, MGM has spent more than $20 million on art, commissioning local artists like Margaret Boozer, whose regional map made of red clay clawed from the foundation adorns the wall above the hotel reception desk. The gateway entrance to the casino is a wrought-iron sculpture by Bob Dylan.

Totaling more than three million square feet, the resort is projected to draw 20,000 daily visitors. It has provided 6,800 construction jobs and is hiring 4,600 permanent workers. The county projects the resort will pump $41 million to $47 million annually in taxes into its coffers, and more into the state treasury.

“We’re going to bring lots of money from Virginia and D.C. into Maryland, which we like,” said the governor, Larry Hogan.

Photo “Portal,” at the western entrance of the casino, is a 26-foot archway created by Bob Dylan. It is made of welded iron objects, depicting a nautical theme. Credit Andrew Mangum for The New York Times

The casino’s 24-story, 308-room hotel has 74 suites at nightly rates of $400 to $12,000, and single rooms from $300 to $800. Mr. Murren said MGM had chosen not to erect a larger hotel because of others nearby. A mile down the hill on the National Harbor waterfront, the Gaylord resort and convention center has 2,000 rooms.

Mr. Murren and Jon Peterson, principal of the Peterson Companies, which developed National Harbor, expect that visitors to the MGM resort will also seek out National Harbor’s amenities, and vice versa, aided by shuttle buses. National Harbor’s 350 acres include the Tanger Outlets, which opened in 2013. Underscoring the growth, a National Harbor Convention and Visitors Association was formed this spring with an initial $1 million budget to market the entire site.

Immediately adjoining the Capital Beltway, National Harbor is easily accessible by car, and that also promises to be its biggest challenge as the casino resort opens. The site is on a major commuter route that carries traffic across the Potomac between Maryland and Virginia and by Interstate 295, which feeds into the District of Columbia. The developer expects MGM’s presence to double the vehicular traffic into National Harbor, to about 180,000 cars weekly, from 90,000. To ease congestion, the developers and government agencies have invested $10 million in roadway improvements.

Photo A $15 million Ferris wheel stands 180 feet high at National Harbor. There is also a carousel and a 64-slip marina, which may be enlarged to accommodate large yachts. Credit Andrew Mangum for The New York Times

The harbor on which the project has risen was originally known as Smoot Bay, for the family sand and gravel mining company that owned it. A rezoning to mixed use in 1983 established the legal foundation for what followed. But a succession of developers could not overcome financial hurdles, and the project, while always grandiose in vision, stalled.

First, it was the Bay of the Americas, and then Port America, which would have incorporated a 52-story office tower designed by the architect Philip Johnson, on what was known as the Beltway site, where MGM is now. The developer, Jim Lewis, even built a $5 million marketing center, but the economy soured and the project went bankrupt.

The Peterson Companies, a large real estate developer based in Northern Virginia, acquired the site in a foreclosure sale. Even though National Harbor opened for business just as the recession was starting, Peterson managed to more than ride it out. Today, National Harbor has more than 150 shops, 37 restaurants, six hotels, offices, townhomes, condos and apartments, and Peterson says it has 11 million visitors, residents and employees there combined each year.

Photo The National Harbor development, where the new casino resort will open, is just seven miles from the nation’s capital. Credit Andrew Mangum for The New York Times

As added attractions, Peterson spent $15 million on a Ferris wheel that soars to 180 feet, installed a carousel and built a 64-slip marina, which it hopes to enlarge to accommodate large yachts. Already, boats ferry passengers to and from National Harbor and Alexandria, Va.

In 2009, Disney paid $15 million to acquire 15 acres it intended for a theme park, but changed its mind. Casinos were proliferating in nearby states and inside Maryland, drawing Prince George’s residents and their dollars elsewhere. Milton V. Peterson, the Peterson Companies’ founder and chairman, who was initially opposed to gambling, changed his mind, as did Mr. Baker, another early opponent.

Slot machines were legal in southern Maryland from 1949 to 1968. Lingering opposition to reintroducing gambling centered on what critics called “slot barns,” casinos without the more upscale table games.

After the statewide referendum in 2012, MGM won the right to build at National Harbor a year later.

John Lally, a land-use lawyer involved in the original rezoning, predicted last week: “The casino will be a big draw for everything else down there. It’s obviously a dream come true for a lot of county politicians. We finally got something that the rest of the region is saying, ‘How come they get to do it?’”

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