November 10
October was a bounceback month for Ohio casinos and racinos as the 11 facilities combined for a bit more than $169 million in revenue, an increase of more than $4 million over the September numbers.
And Ohio also had its best October ever, according to Cleveland.com. A story there reported that the October 2020 total of $169.1 million broke the October record of $158.4 million, set last year. That was the fourth straight month that Ohio set a new record for that particular month.
The credits played, or handle, at Ohio’s seven racinos (racetracks with Video Lottery Terminals) inched closer to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Ohio Lottery report. October’s racino handle was $1,024,671,175, the highest mark since the facilities collected $1,037,157,560 in bets in February. October saw a 2% increase over September’s $1,004,334,564.
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As for revenue, the racino VLTs collected $94,307,194 in October, a 1.7% increase over September’s total of $92,773,859. Again, that’s very close to the revenue levels from the winter months, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all gaming facilities nationwide including those in the Buckeye State. February’s revenue was $95.5 million.
In the 2020-21 fiscal year, which started in July for racinos, the seven facilities — Belterra Park in Cincinnati, Eldorado Gaming Scioto Downs in Columbus, MGM Northfield, Hollywood Gaming Dayton, Hollywood Mahoning Valley in Youngstown, JACK Thistledown in Cleveland and Miami Valley Gaming in Lebanon – have already pulled in $4.023 billion. That’s nearly half of the coronavirus-impacted total of $9.032 billion from the 2019-20 fiscal year that ended in June.
Meanwhile, the state’s four casinos also saw their total revenues rise in October, with an increase of nearly $3 million from September, according to the Ohio Casino Control Commission report.
Ohio casinos pulled in $74,798,699 in October compared to $71,874,064 in September. The facilities set a state record in July with more than $86 million in revenue.
The Hollywood Columbus led the Ohio casino contingent in October with $20,344,955. All four casinos tend to draw similar figures in revenue, with a few million separating top from bottom, and that was the case again in October as JACK Cleveland Casino drew $18,743,361, Hollywood Toledo Casino recorded $18,594,358 and Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati took in $17,116,025.
