Ohio Casino Revenue Reaches $84.3m In March

The Ohio Casino Control Commission has just released its latest casino figures for March, showing a jump in revenue to $84.3 million compared to $55.5 million in February.
Helping the impressive results along was Ohio’s newest $400 million casino, Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati, which opened its doors for the first time on March 4. Overall, the casino had the second highest monthly revenues results in the whole of the state at $21 million. The casino also tallied 441,000 visitors in its first month of operation, and commenting on Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati’s promising results, the casino’s general manager Kevin Kline, said:
“We’re feeling great about our start. I feel like, for the first month to come out of the gate with that reception..I think that’s a great foundation and a great catalyst for what we’d expect to see in the future months.”
Ohio’s other casinos also fared well with all three recording double-digit percentage increases in their revenues. Leading the way was Toledo’s Hollywood Casino up 20.9% to $17.8 million, followed by Hollywood Columbus up 13.3% to $20.9 million, and Horseshoe Cleveland up 11.1% to $24.5 million in March.
The state places a 33% state tax on casino gambling and for March Ohio’s Department of Taxation announced $62.9 million in tax revenue had been collected. Ohio has only had a casino industry since being approved by voters in 2009. At the time it was estimated that Ohio’s four casinos could earn around $2 billion a year generating around $643 million in state taxes. So far, the actual figures have been below projections and have come in at $543.6 million, with $179.4 million of that tally going towards Ohio’s schools, counties and cities. All counties receive a share of the pot but with casino host counties Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati, receiving a bigger slice.