Austintown racino expanding, adding more gaming machines

AUSTINTOWN

More video lottery machines are coming to Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course.

The racino will have part of a temporary wall taken down to install 75 machines. This will make the facility have 941 video lottery machines on its gaming floor. Hollywood Gaming opened with 850 machines, and has been consistent with 866 VLTs for several months now in monthly financial reports from the Ohio Lottery Commission.

“We’ve been open coming up on eight month. We’ve been watching the numbers pretty closely and it’s been based on the average win per day and its been hovering around $300” per VLT in recent months, said Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for parent company Penn National Gaming Inc. “It simply makes good business sense to be adding machines to the floor.”

Lehman Daman Construction Services, of Columbus, is the construction manager of the $975,000 project which will open up 2,200 square feet for the gaming floor. This will be the southeast corner of the facility, near the H Lounge and closer to the racing grandstands. The temporary wall is built around the side entrance.

That cost includes the construction and purchase of the VLT machines. “The majority of the work will actually be done by Mahoning Valley-based subcontractors” and workers, Tenenbaum said.