Ohio Casinos Generate $821.28m In 2013

Last week, the Ohio Casino Control Commission released its casino results for 2013 revealing the state’s four land-based casinos took in $821.28 million throughout the year. Combined with the state’s four racinos, Ohio’s gambling market was worth $1.1 billion throughout 2013.
The latest annual report was completed after Ohio’s December casino figures were collected, showing a steep 9.8% fall in revenue to  $63.2 million, the lowest monthly tally since all four casinos were opened.
Across the state in December, Cincinnati’s casino saw its revenues fall by 19.1%, in Cleveland by 9.6%, in Columbus by 5.8% and in Toledo by 3.9%. The state of Ohio also has four Racinos, horse racing tracks with slot machines, and it is believed December’s worrying figures reflect the cannibalization of Ohio’s casinos by the addition of more racinos into the gambling mix, as well as a slowdown in spending pre-holiday period.
Racinos generated a further $249.3 million gambling revenue for the state in 2013, and as David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, explains: “This tallies with some of the earlier results. It looks like when you have more competition, you’ll see the existing places suffer.”
Ohio collects 33% in taxes from the casinos and during the last quarter of 2013, tax proceeds were down for the first time at $68.7 million, compared to $70.2 million for the previous quarter in 2013. Ohio’s four casinos have now only been open for two quarters and in the first half year of Ohio’s fiscal year, casino revenues reached only $139 million, less than half the $309.8 million predicted for the first full year  by the Ohio Department of Budget and Management.
With the leveling off of Ohio’s casino tax revenue, city officials are now being forced to reduce their revenue projections for 2014.