43
Hollywood Gaming has had six steady months of operations in the Valley
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Operations for the first six months of Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course have been smooth.
Whether looking at the low volume of police reports or fire/medical calls — 26 and 44 respectively — or the day-to-day operations, there have been few hiccups.
“We plan for the worst, and expect the best. So early on we established those relationships” with local authorities, explained Mike Galle, vice president and general manager of Hollywood Gaming, 655 N. Canfield-Niles Road.
“It was really about the training and the efforts we took to foresee what could happen and plan ahead.”
Lt. Nakia Hendrix, commander of the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, noted: “We haven’t had any issues with the racino.”
Austintown Fire Chief Andy Frost III said of those 44 calls, 11 were alarm activations due to the frigid weather.
“There’s nothing that’s been substantial out there,” he said.
The facility had a VIP event Sept. 15 before opening to the public Sept. 17, so it passed its six-month mark last week.
Hollywood Gaming has settled in at 866 video lottery terminals on the gaming floor after opening with 850 VLTs. “Of course we’re always looking at opportunities, but right now we’re going to stay at the 866” number, Galle said.
Patrons of Hollywood Gaming eagerly awaiting expansion should temper expectations. Officials with Penn National Gaming Inc., parent company of Hollywood Gaming, have said it takes two to three years for a market to stabilize.
Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon agreed.
“Overall, regional gaming, Ohio included, continues to improve as consumers begin to feel more comfortable with their discretionary spending budgets,” Beynon wrote in an email. “Penn [National] will expand the property and offer more slot machines once the property reaches a certain win-per-day number, which to them indicates that demand is outweighing supply.”
That win per day per VLT has bounced between $257 and $283 over the last four months after having higher figures for the first six weeks of operations. “From a non-gaming standpoint, we expect small tweaks, but nothing major within the first couple years,” Beynon added.
The Austintown facility has 452 jobs, 65 percent of which are full time. Galle detailed that more than 90 percent of the workers are local hires and only a handful had experience in the gaming industry.
The net win, or the revenue taken in after prize payouts, has been as high as $8.62 million in October and as low as $6.85 million in February, according to monthly figures released from the Ohio Lottery Commission. Of those figures, the racino consistently brought in between $4.5 million and $4.7 million as its commission for the last four months.
Alan Silver, Ohio University assistant professor of restaurant, hotel and tourism and a casino expert, has been critical of Hollywood Gaming as its numbers have remained relatively stable.
“The numbers thus far for the new facility have not lived up to what would be expected for a new racino. You want to see consistent growth of Gross Gaming Revenue. GGR is expected for a new facility because of the newness factor, which usually translates to a lot of excitement and buzz. Potential customers will therefore drive greater distances to see and experience all the amenities that a new facility has to offer first hand. This is why we expected to see a consistent growth pattern and steady climb of GGR,” Silver said.
Overall, Galle said they are happy with the first six months and have had “nice crowds” for live race days Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Racing at the 1-mile thoroughbred track ends April 24, with a week off before Ohio horsemen can race at Thistledown Racino in the Cleveland area. The Ohio horsemen signed a deal to have a Northeast Ohio circuit, with 25 weeks of racing at each track with one week off between each cycle for the full 52-week year.
Once live racing ends, Hollywood Gaming will turn its attention to offering banquets in the race-viewing area.
Bruce Zoldan, part of the Team Valor racehorse owner consortium, talked about the growth of Hollywood Gaming since it has opened. He has horses running at bigger tracks, such as Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
“I’m very impressed with the development of our track here at Mahoning Valley. When I travel, I hear chatter amongst the horsemen in the industry that Mahoning Valley is working very hard to establish a name in the industry,” he said.
Further, Zoldan said he has noticed that the sports books in Las Vegas have the races from Austintown and the simulcast betting dollars from outside of the track — something Penn National officials said would be their niche that has been realized.
“It’s not yet at the level where we have horses coming here, but it’s getting closer,” Zoldan said of the high quality horses that Team Valor features, such as 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.
“Mahoning Valley is definitely on our radar screen now and it wasn’t before, and we look forward to running some of our young horses here next year,” Zoldan said.