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Casinos see best first quarter yet
YOUNGSTOWN
This past winter produced the highest winter quarter casino-tax revenues yet for Ohio’s counties and major cities, including Youngstown, the Ohio Department of Taxation reported.
“The winter was light. They were able to drive,” conveniently to the casinos, Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said of casino gamblers.
Besides the mild winter, the casinos’ strong performance is attributable to their having table games, which racinos, including the one in Austintown, do not have, she added.
Jessica Franks, communications director for the Ohio Casino Control Commission, agreed that the mild winter may have helped the casinos.
None of Ohio’s four casinos had weather-related closings this past winter, but the Cleveland and Toledo casinos have had such closings in previous winters, Franks noted.
For the period between Jan.1 and March 31, 2016, Youngstown and Mahoning County are each getting $362,488, compared with $352,854 for the same quarter last year; $341,549 for the first quarter of 2014 and $326,893 for the first quarter of 2013.
The Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus casinos opened in 2012, but the Cincinnati casino didn’t open until March 2013.
Therefore, comparisons of winter quarters during which all four casinos were open for the entire quarter are limited to 2014, 2015 and this year.
In counties with a major city, the major city and county government share equally in the county’s casino tax revenue.
For Trumbull County, first-quarter revenues were $636,975 this year, $620,889 last year, $602,987 in 2014 and $576,662 in 2013.
For Columbiana County, the numbers were $327,649; $319,821; $309,298 and $296,127, respectively.
The steady increase in casino-tax revenues occurred despite competition from the state’s racinos, which were opening during the comparison period.
Ohio’s seventh and final racino, Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course, opened in Austintown on Sept. 17, 2014.
Casinos pay a 33 percent tax on gross revenues, and tax distributions from that collection go quarterly to Ohio’s 88 counties and eight major cities, including Youngstown.
The casinos have slot machines and table games.
The racinos have slot machines and live horse-racing, but no table games.
“People that normally would go to the racino for only the [slot] machines are sometimes moving to casinos so they can play table games,” including card, blackjack and dice games, Rimedio-Righetti observed.
Cleveland casino gamblers “could make a weekend out of it,” she noted, citing Cleveland’s museums, symphony, Playhouse Square, downtown entertainment district, and various shopping destinations, including the West Side Market.
Similar amenities are available in the Mahoning Valley, Rimedio-Righetti said, adding that she hopes the Austintown racino can eventually have table games to appeal to more gambling interests.