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Hollywood Gaming posts best month since October
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Higher temperatures coincided with higher revenue statewide for Ohio’s casinos and racinos, including Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
Credits played at the Austintown venue jumped almost $10 million from February to March — $65,501,788 in February to last month’s $75,138,893 — and credits won jumped more than $8 million to $66,637,349. Credits include cash and promotional offerings.
The net win, or revenue, increased more than $1.1 million to $7,985,259 in March. That net win was distributed with $5,283,646 staying at Hollywood Gaming, $2,675,062 going to the Ohio Lottery Commission and $26,551 to problem gambling services.
The Austintown racino averaged 865 video lottery terminals, one fewer than the previous four months, and the win per VLT per day was $298. For many of those categories, it was the first time the numbers hit close to October’s still-high posting during the racino’s first full month of operations.
“March is typically the month when revenues start to go up, primarily due to the weather, and it’s the month whenpeople, for the most part, decide when they can go outside,” said Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for Hollywood Gaming’s parent company, Penn National Gaming Inc. Penn National does not comment specifically on monthly numbers.
Statewide, the seven racinos had $776,749,158 credits played with $691,648,229 credits won and an overall net win of $72,729,646.
In fact, every racino saw a jump in the net win, with the biggest leap from February to March at the Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park in the Cleveland area. That increased from $14,768,718 in February to last month’s $18,507,271.
The Rocksino’s March net win was higher than three of the four casinos in the Buckeye State. Only Horseshoe Cleveland posted a higher adjusted gross casino revenue that was $19,770,223.
Overall, the state’s four casinos brought in $72,884,539. Numbers posted at Hollywood Gaming and across the state for racinos were close to October’s high posting, which was the first time that the racinos had brought in more money than the four casinos. The difference in March between the casinos and the racinos was $154,893 in the casinos’ favor.
“The casinos and racinos are now just about equal in revenue for March,” remarked Alan Silver, Ohio University assistant professor of restaurant, hotel and tourism and a casino expert.
He said about Mahoning Valley: “Anytime you get a positive jump, it’s a positive sign.”
Promotional play was up for the third straight month to $516,285 and was above $500,000 for just the second time since the facility opened last September.
Silver said now that it’s warming up, revenue “will be good,” but he also noted that vacations are coming.
“Unfortunately some of the areas in Ohio [with gaming] are not the big destination for [vacations] and [revenue] is probably going to stabilize and take a hit over the next several months,” Silver said.
Silver also gave some insight on when live racing ends later this month at Hollywood Gaming. “A lot of the racinos, a real test is going to be how they use those outdoor venues when there’s no racing there” and “... creating ways of doing that is going to be a key factor for which properties do the best financially,” he said.