Tuesday, October 20, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
Casino tax revenue to Ohio’s counties and major cities during this year’s third quarter are below those of the same quarter in 2014.
When comparing the first three quarters of this year with the same period last year, those revenues also have fallen.
“I think the [gambling] market is oversaturated. The racinos are cutting into all the casinos in Ohio,” said Adrian Biviano, Trumbull County auditor.
With four casinos and seven racinos, including the Austintown racino, Ohio has 11 state-regulated establishments competing for gambling dollars.
The Ohio Department of Taxation recently reported the results of casino gambling activity between July 1 and Sept. 30 as it announced the revenue distributions to Ohio’s 88 counties and eight major cities, including Youngstown.
The money comes from a 33 percent tax on gross revenues that is paid by the casinos in Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati.
For the third quarter, Youngstown and Mahoning County are each getting $341,680 this year, compared with $356,532 last year; Trumbull County is getting $601,226 this year, compared with $629,439 last year; and Columbiana County is getting $309,693 this year, compared with $322,866 last year.
For the first three quarters of this year combined, Youngstown and Mahoning County each totaled $1,023,850, compared with $1,049,535 for the same period in 2014.
Trumbull County’s casino tax revenues for the first three quarters of 2015 totaled $1,801,585, compared with $1,852,900 for the first nine months of last year.
For the first nine months of this year, Columbiana County got $928,000, compared with $950,432 for the same period last year.
this year’s REVENUE by quarter
The $341,680 Youngstown and Mahoning County are each getting in this month’s distribution covering third-quarter activity compares with $329,316 for the second quarter and $352,854 for the first quarter of this year.
Mahoning County Auditor Ralph Meacham said a variety of factors could affect casino performance, including weather conditions and the fact that income taxes owed are generally paid to the IRS in April.
It could be that, this spring, gamblers “paid their taxes and so the next period they have more money available” for casino gambling, he said.
The $601,226 Trumbull County is getting for this year’s third quarter compares with $579,470 for the second quarter and $620,889 for the first quarter.
Columbiana County is getting $309,693 in casino tax distributions this month based on July-to-September casino gambling activity, compared with $298,486 for the second quarter and $319,821 for the first quarter.
the competitive environment
Third-quarter casino activity in 2015 occurred as the last of Ohio’s seven racinos, Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Austintown, completed its first year in business Sept. 17.
That Austintown racino will begin its second live horse racing season Oct. 30.
“Atlantic City built large palaces to gambling,” many of which are now closing, Meacham noted.
“You have a lot of competition in the Northeast Ohio corridor” with the Cleveland casino and the Northfield Park and Hollywood Gaming racinos, and with out-of-state gambling establishments in Chester, W.Va., and in Erie and Pittsburgh, Biviano observed.
Mahoning Valley residents likely are more inclined to drive to Hollywood Gaming in Austintown than to the other locations, especially in winter, he said.
Meacham said he sees casino tax revenue as “not something that can be counted on as a steady income stream.”
He added: “I think it’s prudent to set it aside” for emergency uses.
Mahoning County puts 60 percent of its casino tax receipts into its reserve fund and the remainder into its general fund, which is its main operating fund.
trumbull county’s situation
Full-year casino tax revenues to Trumbull County totaled $2,352,166 in 2013 and $2,482,304 last year, but Biviano said he’s projecting only $2.2 million this year.
Trumbull County uses the casino tax revenue to support its general fund, to the extent that such support is necessary, and spends some of the remaining casino tax revenue on capital needs, Biviano said.
Because of state funding cuts, “the general fund’s needs are growing faster than we can do the capital needs” spending, he said.
The amount of casino tax revenue going into the general fund there grew from $1 million in 2013 to $1.7 million in 2014, and will grow to $2.5 million this year, he said.
Trumbull County will be able to achieve the $2.5 million contribution to the general fund this year because it carried over $1.1 million in casino tax revenue from 2014, Biviano explained.
Trumbull County capital needs paid for by casino tax income since 2012 have included sheriff’s cruisers, building repairs and computer, snow removal and jail equipment.