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Valley gets slightly bigger payouts from casino taxes this month
YOUNGSTOWN
Casino tax revenues for Ohio’s 88 counties and eight major cities, including Youngstown, have risen slightly for the second- consecutive quarter.
In this month’s distribution, Youngstown and Mahoning County will each get $356,532, compared with $351,454 in July and $341,549 in April.
Trumbull County will get $629,439, compared with $620,474 in July and $602,987 in April.
For Columbiana County, the figures are $322,866 in October, $318,268 in July and $309,298 in April, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation.
The increases the past two quarters followed three-consecutive quarters of decline.
This month’s distribution totaled $27 million to be shared among Ohio’s 88 counties and $8.2 million for the eight major cities combined.
Funding comes from a 33- percent gross revenues tax on the four casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo, which offer slot machines and table games.
Those cities also receive host-city tax distributions.
Casino revenues are entirely separate from tax monies from the state’s seven racinos, which combine slot machines with horse racing but have no table games.
The last of the seven racinos, Hollywood Slots at Mahoning Valley Race Course, opened its casino Sept. 17 and will begin horse racing Nov. 24.
Recent growth in casino revenues reflects increased gambling during the summer vacation period, noted Alan Silver, assistant professor of restaurant, hotel and tourism at Ohio University.
However, he observed: “We’ve got more and more competition with those seven racinos, and it’s going to get more and more difficult to grow the market.”
Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti agreed that the big city casinos benefited by being summer driving destinations for vacationers.
However, she said the Austintown racino, which is conveniently located for Mahoning Valley residents, might cut into Cleveland casino activity during the winter, when weather and road conditions often aren’t ideal for long-distance driving.
Silver said he expects the racinos will lobby for, and eventually get, table games.
“Once they get table games, that’s going to dig in deeply into the overall casino revenue across the state,” he predicted.
“I’m sure they’ll lobby for the table games,” Righetti said. With table games, “You’d have an all-around racino-casino,” she said.
The Austintown racino already is a destination because it not only offers slot machines but also a “top shelf” restaurant and a food court with a bakery, and it will have horse racing, both here and simulcast from other tracks, Righetti said.
The Austintown facility is also centrally located along Interstate 80 and near many local golf courses and Lake Milton, she added.
Unlike tax revenue from the four casinos, racino tax revenue isn’t designated for cities and counties.
The Ohio Lottery Commission, which regulates racinos, gets one third of its gross receipts and directs that money to public education in Ohio.