Ohio Racinos Outperform Casinos For The First Time In October

The Ohio Casino Control Commission has released its October results for Ohio’s four casinos, revealing an 8.8% drop in revenues to $63.9 million, compared to the same month in 2013. In the meanwhile Ohio’s seven racinos generated $66.2 million in October, a 174.6% improvement from a year ago, and marking the first time total racino revenues have outperformed that of casinos.
Commenting on the landmark situation, Alan Silver, an Ohio University assistant professor of restaurant, hotel and tourism, explained:
“It’s not a surprise, but it is a significant moment for the racinos. The racinos are spread out all over the state, are in more suburban locations and are becoming quite popular with the locals. People are starting to feel comfortable going to these properties.”
In October, three of Ohio’s four casinos actually returned positive growth compared to the previous month, with the Toledo casino’s 80 table games and 2,045 slot machines generating 5.2% more revenues at $15.3 million.
Next, the Hollywood Casino Columbus with 114 table games and 2,275  slot machines was up by 11% to $17.45 million, while the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland with 119 table games and 1,625 slot machines was also up by 2.7% to $7.87 million.
Just Cincinnati’s Horseshoe Casino with 119 table games and 1,968 slot machines was down by 14% to $13.95 million. Compared to last year, however, only the Toledo noted a 4% gain, while combined revenues at Ohio’s four casinos were down by more than $6 million year-over-year.
On a more positive note, Ohio racino and casino revenues generated total revenues of $130.1 million in October, the state’s second-biggest monthly tally, behind the $130.5 million collected in March. The state then collected about one-third of those revenues in taxes before distributing the funds throughout its 88 counties.
Ohio opened its first casino in 2012, and last year the state’s combined casino and racino industry generated $1.07 billion in revenues which, although an impressive figure, still fell well below the $1.9 billion in annual revenues predicted by analysts prior to legalization. For the first nine months of 2014, the Buckeye State’s casino revenues are also currently trailing last year’s tally at this stage of $676 million.