10Sep
Ohio Online Casino Bill Proposes Unique Licensing and Tax Structure
Ohio Casinos and Gambling
Short Summary: This page looks at the different forms of gambling in the State of Ohio, discusses the legality of online gambling and gives a detailed listing of all of the Commercial and Tribal casinos in the state.
Top 4 United States: Ohio Casino Sites
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Over time, Ohio would become one of the more liberal states in terms of the forms of gambling legalized, licensed and regulated by the state…but they sure took their sweet time about it. It took surrounding states such as Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to legalize and regulate commercial casinos before Ohio finally got off of its ass about it.
I have something of a unique perspective on this because I used to manage a hotel in Eastern Ohio, kind of in the middle of the state (from a north/south standpoint.) Prior to the discovery of vast reserves of natural gas in the state, and aside from a few annual special events, a significant portion of our business came from people who would come from population centers (that now have casinos) such as Columbus and Cleveland to go to Wheeling Island Hotel Casino Racetrack. Every weekend, we could virtually count on 20% of our rooms (these weren’t the only guests-obviously) being filled with such casino-goers.
One theme that is consistent in the State of Ohio when it comes to gambling laws is that they like to take half measures. While full-on commercial casinos were eventually authorized, the state only allowed for four licenses distributed to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. While that covers the biggest population centers in the state, there are still many sizeable areas left out. For those who live in the area of that hotel, there are four casinos closer (Wheeling Island–Wheeling, Mountaineer–Chester, WV, The Meadows–Washington, PA and Rivers Casino–Pittsburgh, PA.) More than that, the area of Marietta, Ohio is essentially not within reasonable reach of any of these full commercial land casinos and it’s a sizeable town.
Ohio would compensate for this somewhat by giving the state’s existing horse racing tracks the option to introduce Video Lottery Terminals to their properties and thereby become racinos. The majority of the racetracks (if not all of them) availed themselves of this option, but the only games allowed for at these racinos are slots and video keno. Table games are not permitted.
Additionally, West Virginia has video lottery terminals (5-10 depending on designation of the establishment) in any number of locations commonly called, “Parlors.” These machines commonly include a variety (usually about ten or so) of slot games as well as a handful of Keno games. Some of the newer Spielo units often feature as many as sixteen total games. These, “Parlors,” have been in operation for well over a decade and it’s extremely unusual to see a restaurant/bar in the state without some of these units. In fact, there are many locations that operate successfully that don’t even serve a purpose other than having these units and this has been the case for nearly twenty years.
The first sorry response to this wouldn’t come until 2008 when the Ohio Lottery would introduce, “Live,” keno draws. Essentially what happens is that the player can purchase a ticket from an Ohio lottery retailer, or machine, and the ticket will be good for the next draw(s) depending on what the player chooses to do. The draws take place every few minutes and, as one would expect, the returns to player are deplorable.
Much less than open a business exclusively to offer this access, I spoke to a wide variety of businesses and most of them report that it’s a little bit of change, but the live keno doesn’t really do much for them overall. The simple fact of the matter is that the distribution is kind of clunky, waiting for the games is boring and not very many people play it. You don’t have people sitting around the bar with one eye on the football game and another on the keno draw TV, people are typically ignoring it or may buy a single $1 ticket on a, “Hunch.”
Ohio would improve upon this in 2016 by introducing a single brand of video keno machines that were intended for liquor serving establishments such as bars and restaurants. There is simply no reason why they couldn’t have gotten Game King machines (same as most in the West Virginia parlors) which would enable the border cities to better compete with those offerings…but they didn’t. Instead, they thought they would be better served to spend $16M dollars to roll out machines that are no better than some unused Game Kings that are probably sitting in some storage units somewhere.
It’s an improvement, but not much of one. For one thing, any location that I have ever seen with these devices only has one such device. Secondly, players get absolutely pummeled on these things as the returns are putrid. Most players in the border areas would rather play the games over in West Virginia, but perhaps these machines do well in the center of the state, who knows?
The West Virginia parlors introduced untold amounts of tax revenues to the state and created any number of jobs with any number of locations opened to do nothing but serve as a parlor. There may be some revenues from these machines for Ohio, but there sure as hell weren’t any locations opened up just to have one bad returning video keno machine.
The so-called, “Games of Skill,” are machines upon which the result of the following spin is known. At one time, these games were thought to be legal in the state, or if not legal, the state didn’t seem to care to do anything about it. Though few and far between, there were a few locations within the state that offered these machines. They can also still be found in some truck stops and certain gas stations and bars. Technically, those ones are legal provided that the tickets are only good for merchandise credits and not cashed out for actual money.
Ultimately, the state would crack down on those machines, this started happening suspiciously close to when the commercial casinos were approved and started getting built. That’s a hell of a coincidence. In any event, the locations that did nothing but offer these machines were closed down and the locations (a few hotels, ours was one) that couldn’t possibly have been using the tickets for merchandise credits (we gave cash) were told they had to remove the machines.
It was a shame, too, because the machines were good for some pocket change and represented this writer’s first advantage play! I’ll give you a little background for fun:
The way the machines worked were they self-classified as, “Games of Skill.” The visual representation of the games was that of a 3×3 slot machine and they basically paid out in a TIc-Tac-Toe format. The player would make a spin and then would have the opportunity to physically select a symbol to change to a wild symbol and would get paid out accordingly. The key was obviously to change the symbol to wild that would result in the best possible pay(s), if any. There were many spins for which no symbol change would result in a win.
The second, “Skill,” component of the game was that there was a, “Next Game,” button which would show the tic-tac-toe board for each bet level. In other words, the player could know whether or not he/she was going to win, and how many credits he/she would win, before actually betting on the next spin. The player did not even have to insert any money to view the next game. You just looked at it and decided whether or not a wild symbol could be put in a spot that made the combination a winner.
Anyway, the key was to only play if the next spin would result in a win and to put the symbol in the spot corresponding to the highest paying possible result. You would also take the play if the next play was destined to be, “Break even,” because it essentially enabled you to look at the following game for free to decide if you wanted to play.
People who played the game regularly obviously realized this and would not leave anything winning behind. Being a hotel, of course, we had many people from all sorts of areas who were not familiar with the machines and either did not understand or could not figure out that they could look at the next game ahead of time. These people would often leave me profitable games, so I would come into work and check the machines and would also check them anytime someone was playing and left. Even if the win was only going to be $2-$3, why not? I’m at work anyway, so what else am I doing that’s so important?
Anyway, those machines are mostly gone with exception to truck stops and the odd gas station or bar where the local authorities didn’t feel like doing anything about it. If you do find one, I would strongly recommend asking someone working there if they actually pay cash because they probably do not and are not supposed to. Some places designate them as, “For entertainment only,” and don’t even give any merchandise credit on them.
Charitable gambling laws are fairly liberal in the State of Ohio and always have been. For quite some time, it was almost as though the state would let them do basically whatever they wanted to provided the revenue share was coming in, but in the mid-2000’s the Legislature decided to further clarify the laws as to what the charities could and could not do.
The first thing that the state did was come up with different types of Bingo licenses and fees for each type of license. A Type I license would allow an organization to conduct live bingo only. A Type II license would allow the organization to not only conduct live bingo, but also to sell instant bingo tickets (basically pull tabs) during the live bingo events. The Type III license allowed the organization to do both of these things, but also to sell the pull tabs at non-bingo events.
Charitable organizations are also permitted to conduct Vegas-style gaming (fairly limited) on two occasions per year consisting of not more than four consecutive days each, or on one occasion per year to not consist of more than five consecutive days.
The other form of charitable gambling that is permitted by the state is that of 50/50 raffles. While it is true that an organization must meet a few specific criteria in order to be permitted to conduct these legally, there is no actual licensing requirement. The most common type of raffle of this nature is a 50/50 raffle, but the state also permits raffles for prizes that do not exceed a certain value.
Horse racing and pari-mutuel betting have essentially always been legal in the state, but Ohio tends to tax such activities to a greater extent than many other states. For both live and simulcast wagering, there is a tax based on the, “Handle,” for a particular day. When $200,000 or less has been wagered, there is a 1% tax, if $200,001-$300,000 is wagered, then the tex goes to 2% for that 100K, 3% for the next 100K after than and 4% on all monies wagered (handle) over $400,000 in a given day. Additionally, for, “Exotic,” bets, there is a flat rate tax of 3% on all wagers placed which exists in conjunction with the taxes listed above…in other words, both taxes have to be paid on exotic bets.
There is also a .1% Municipal Tax that goes to municipalities of race tracks that hold a live racing meet with a tax of 0.15% if it does more than five million. I don’t think anyone has ever had to worry about the 0.15%, in this case. To wit, most of the state’s racetracks were on the verge of death prior to the VLT’s being authorized.
The Ohio Lottery remains very robust (as they almost always do) even in light of the new gambling options. The state participates in the major national lotteries of PowerBall, Mega Millions and Lucky for Life.
In thousands, total ticket sales for the lottery came out to 3,360,764 (3.3 BILLION) based on the annual report for Fiscal Year 2019.
Keep in mind that these sales do not include the VLT sales, which the little keno machines are a part of. VLT revenues came out to about 1,058,819 (1.059 BILLION) in their own right.
Prizes (in thousands) came out to 2,193,841 (2.194 BILLION) which represents a total return to player of approximately 65.28%. This return to player is likely influenced by a high percentage of instant ticket sales, and we are also going to try to determine whether or not the televised Keno drawings count as, “Ticket sales,” rather than VLT sales, which is likely the case.
Going down to the next section, we see that, of the total ticket sales, Instant Tickets made up 1,663,031 (in thousands) which means that nearly half of all of the ticket sales were made up of instant tickets. In addition to that, while the Keno drawings don’t return particularly well, they do return better than drawings such as Powerball, Mega Millions, Pick 4…etc, and roughly 454 million dollars of the state’s ticket revenue came from those sales.
In total, these ticket sales accounted for roughly 63% of total lottery ticket sales, and on average, probably have a return to player of over 70% once the keno is factored in. I think I looked at the Pick 7 Keno once and determined the return to be in the mid-70% area.
In total, the state made about 1,220,923 (1.22 BILLION) off of the state’s residents just in the various types of ticket sales. Once again, the VLT revenues in the lottery report just refer to the percentage of the racino’s profit cuts that go to the lottery. Therefore, residents technically lose substantially more to the lottery than this, but since they are machines at a racino, the residents probably don’t see it that way.
Ultimately, the Ohio Lottery Commission makes a profit of $104.39/resident just on lottery ticket sales. Factoring in the VLT revenues) causes this figure to almost double. Of the VLT revenues, the lottery receives 33.5%.
Even with that, $104.39 per resident is nothing to sneeze at!
Further down the list, we do find that the Instant Tickets paid out at 69.6%, which is obviously terrible, but pretty good by Instant Ticket standards. The lottery reports that drawing games paid out at 57.8%, but they have the benefit of using an EXTREMELY misleading figure, because the Keno Drawing numbers are included in this figure. If it weren’t for those figures being included, drawing tickets would pay out much closer to 50%, if not slightly below.
In any event, the Ohio Lottery does extremely well and could do SO MUCH BETTER if they would join West Virginia in introducing limited VLT parlors. Other states that have these include Montana and Illinois, and they are a tremendous source of revenue.
Online Gambling In Ohio
Update: Ohio is probably feeling some public pressure to allow for online casinos in the state to go with the many land casinos and racinos (listed below) that are already operating. Bordering states, such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, have already offered online casinos for the last few years, but then, Ohio has always been a few years behind these states when it comes to all forms of gambling.
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, sports betting legislation has recently been signed into law by Ohio’s Governor, Mike DeWine, and operators and players alike were more than ready for this development, quoting, in part:
Casinos and racinos in the state have sportsbooks, or venues where bettors can place bets and watch games. Pro sports teams across the state and the Football Hall of Fame in Canton also have plans for sportsbooks. Many bars and places that already offer Keno machines will also offer sports gaming kiosks. But the overwhelming way most Ohioans will gamble is on their phone through a sports gaming app. That means people can place bets anywhere in the state, 24 hours a day.
With that, starting on January 1st, 2023, residents of The Buckeye State will begin to place bets at both retail and online locations.
However, what that legislation did not include is provisions for online casino-style gaming, or Internet Poker.
We don’t know how long it will be until the State of Ohio authorizes those things, and much like the online sportsbooks, there will certainly need to be a tie to a physical gambling outlet when they do. That said, we do expect for the state to allow for regulated online casino-style gambling, and probably poker, in the coming years as bordering states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia already have those things. Eventually, Ohio is going to take notice of all the tax revenues flowing into those state treasuries and will want a piece of it.
We’re sure that residents of the state will have no objections when they do. In the meantime, if you’re looking for casino-style gambling in the Buckeye State, then there are a number of online casinos who have been offering their services for years, our top recommendations are above!
There is no legalized and regulated means of gambling online in the state at this time, and the matter has not recently come up Legislatively. The most recent gambling matter being looked at has been sports gambling, but was not in any way related to anything online.
Interestingly enough, online gambling in Ohio is conditionally legal for players, though it is definitely illegal for operators. For mere players, “Illegal gambling,” (including online) is only illegal when it is done as a substantial source of income or livelihood, though the laws really don’t define those terms with any specificity. In any case, if you’re not gambling online as a sole means of profession, then you are almost certainly within the law.
Beyond that, we can find no evidence of enforcement actions being taken against players; only operators. Any casino operating online in Ohio is likely based outside of the country, so they would be completely out of Ohio’s jurisdictional reach and any laws against operators could not be enforced against them.
Top 4 Sportsbooks in United States: Ohio
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Land Casinos In Ohio
This section will contain information for both casinos and racinos in Ohio. The casinos all have the word, “Casino,” in the name, so anything that does not is one of the racinos. Furthermore, we will also go ahead and list the casinos first and the racinos second.
The racinos in Ohio are not permitted to have video poker or table games, the state Video Lottery Terminals consist of slots and video keno only. There was a measure that passed the House in 2017 that would have permitted the racinos to also offer video poker, but it died a Legislative death after that. Naturally, it faced opposition from many of the owners of actual casinos as they would prefer not to have competition in an additional game.
Hollywood Casino Columbus
Located in the state’s capital of Columbus, Ohio, Hollywood Casino is a sizeable casino property that is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Penn National Gaming. If I have said this once, then I have said it a million times, if you’ve been to one Hollywood Casino, then you’ve basically been to all of them.
This particular Hollywood Casino is laid out and features the old cinematic posters that one comes to expect at literally every Hollywood Casino. Even the distance between banks of machines seems like it comes from some sort of diagram that all of the Hollywood-branded casinos use, the only good news about that is that they like to have a reasonable (walkability) distance between banks.
One characteristic that all Ohio casinos and racinos share is that they are 100% non-smoking, and that is because the State of Ohio has a complete indoor smoking ban. Hollywood Casino, and some other locations, make up for this by having designated smoking areas that are (technically) outdoors. These smoking areas are permitted pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 3794.03(F), which states:
(F) Outdoor patios . All outdoor patios shall be physically separated from an enclosed area. If windows or doors form any part of the partition between an enclosed area and the outdoor patio, the openings shall be closed to prevent the migration of smoke into the enclosed area. If windows or doors do not prevent the migration of smoke into the enclosed area, the outdoor patio shall be considered an extension of the enclosed area and subject to the prohibitions of this chapter.
At this particular Hollywood, the way they have it is that there are two sliding doors. The first sliding door leads to a very small hallway and the door on the other side of that hallway leads to the, ‘Outdoor patio area,” so this technically complies with the law…at least enough so for the Board of Health and State Fire Marshal, anyway. The only smoke that would enter the main facility in this case would come from both doors being open at the same time, but that would only occur if two different people happened to be passing through the little hallway.
It’s also not a patio in the sense one would think of a patio. It consists of 8,000 square feet of space, has 200 games and its own bar.
Hollywood Columbus is also spread out over 160,000 square feet of total gaming space. The property itself is not home to a hotel and their website does not seem to advertise that they do transportation to any hotels.
Another thing that should be mentioned (in addition to 100% non-smoking) that will apply to all casinos in Ohio is the fact that alcoholic beverages may not be comped. Interestingly enough, this is actually a law that predates the casinos, not just for gambling entities, but any location that sells alcohol may not give alcohol away for free.
The main casino floor plus the smoking patio are home to over 2,150 total video poker, slot and video keno games with denominations ranging all the way from pennies to hundreds. Naturally, they love to take advantage of the advantage that the State of Ohio handed them and pimp themselves as having, “The only video poker in Columbus,” as if the Scioto Downs racino wouldn’t have video poker if only it were allowed to do so.
They mention a few specific slot and video poker offerings on their website, which amusingly erroneously calls Hot Roll Poker, “Hot Roller Poker,” as of the time of this writing. I don’t know why, but that gave me a giggle.
The casino features sixty gaming tables which include games such as Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Three-Card Poker, Deuces Joker Wild Stud Poker, High Card Flush, Craps Free Craps (also called Crapless Craps), Mini Baccarat, Face Up Pai Gow Poker, Crazy 4 Poker, Mississippi Stud, Baccarat, Zappit Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. As always, we would recommend calling ahead if you are looking to play any of the carnival games for their general operating hours. Also, any such games would be more likely to operate on weekend evenings than any other time.
They do not say how many tables are in their poker room, though they do have a tournament schedule and mention that they deal Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha and Omaha Hi Lo.
The property features a few eateries with the fine dining establishment, as with most Hollywood Casinos, being the Final Cut Steakhouse. Otis and Henry’s Sports Bar and Grill is also something of a casino staple, and also in many Hollywood properties, and features casual food. The buffet is called Epic Buffet, just like at almost any other Hollywood Casino, serves basically the same food as any other Epic Buffet at any other Hollywood Casino and looks like any other Epic Buffet at any other Hollywood Casino. Zen Noodle features Asian food at reasonable prices while Grill 2 Go features some grab and go choices.
The property is home to an events center with a schedule of events appearing on the website, they do bring in some pretty big acts, such as Brian McKnight coming in next month. (2020) The bars on the property also occasionally feature live entertainment most weekends, though no schedule for that really appears on the website.
The bottom line is that if you have been to one Hollywood Casino, then quite frankly, you have already been to all of them. Make no bones about it, Hollywood Casino is the cookie-cutter, paint-by-numbers Wal*Mart version of casinos. That’s not to say that we don’t suggest going if you’re going to be in Columbus, maybe you like Hollywood Casinos. Also, if you’ve never been to a Hollywood Casino, then it probably is worth going to one and only one.
Hollywood Casino Toledo
Hollywood Casino Toledo is located in a city of the same name that sits in the Northwest corner of the State of Ohio. This is another property owned by Gaming and Leisure properties that is operated by Penn National Gaming. By the way, Gaming and Leisure Properties is what is called a, “Real Estate Investment Trust,” so there is only a difference between them and Penn National Gaming in a strictly corporate legalese sense…they’re basically the same thing. Only thing is, Penn National could file bankruptcy and shut down entirely while the other entity could maybe retain the physical property.
This casino floor is slightly smaller than Columbus, but still very sizeable at 125,000 square feet. It’s pretty safe to build a large casino when the state makes sure that you have essentially no regional competition coming from within your own state. Once again, there is no hotel attached to this casino, though it does list many area hotel partners.
The property features over 2,000 combined slots, video poker and video keno machines. Similar to the Columbus property, denominations range from pennies to hundreds and there is a partial list of available titles on their website. Speaking of the websites, even those look almost exactly the same, just like the inside of Hollywood Casinos.
The property does not deign to give a tables count, but it does list some of the available table games as Blackjack, Free Bet Blackjack, Let it Ride Bonus Poker, Craps, Craps Free (Crapless) Craps, Roulette, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Zappit, Pai Gow Poker, Mini Baccarat, Three-Card Poker, Crazy 4 Poker, Mississippi Stud, High Card Flush and Buster Blackjack. That’s quite an assortment, but certainly, the case that not all of these games operate around the clock, so we recommend giving them a call and seeing when your game of choice operates if you are looking for a less common one.
While they do not provide a table count for the live poker room on their website, they do deign to inform us that they spread Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha Poker and Seven Card Stud.
Eateries at this property include, here comes a surprise, The Final Cut Steakhouse for fine dining. A unique eatery (can a Hollywood property actually have something unique? Bestill my heart!) is the Jim Beam American Stillhouse, which features BBQ food. The property’s buffet is called the Epic Buffet, because what the heck else would it be called? Scene is the spot for casual American food and the Take 2 Grill is your place for grab and go.
Entertainment takes place at The H Lounge and consists primarily of live bands on the weekends.
The name is the same and so is almost everything else. Once again, the only reason to go to this casino is if you’ve never been to a Hollywood Casino before, or if you have been to one previously but REALLY like knowing what to expect. Perhaps surprising given they are in the Toledo market rather than Columbus, but the differences between the two Ohio Hollywoods favor Toledo…they have a wider array of table games and a few different eateries from the Columbus location. My guess is that is because Toledo is essentially competing with Michigan casinos for customers and the only real direct competition for Hollywood Columbus is the Scioto Downs racino.
Jack Cleveland Casino
The most interesting aspect about JACK Cleveland Casino is the fact that most people have already seen it, though it was not a casino at the time. If you have ever seen the movie, A Christmas Story, the mall scene with the Santa Clause takes place at the very mall in which JACK is located, and specifically, where the casino is now located at one of the far ends of the mall.
While there is, strictly speaking, no hotel in JACK Casino, the mall in which it operates is directly connected to a Ritz-Carlton, which is one of the casino’s partner hotels. Having stayed at this hotel (comped) I can say that the view is absolutely killer, but beyond that, it’s really nothing special. The rooms are very nice, don’t get me wrong, but for it being the nicest name hotel I’d ever stayed at, I was kind of underwhelmed. I suppose the bathrobe was nice, but it didn’t occur to me to wonder if they are changed with every guest…maybe I’d have done better not to put it on. (Ew!)
The mall casino location, consisting of 100,000 square feet of gambling space, was originally intended to be a temporary location. Originally, there had been plans to build an entirely new facility outside of the mall, but for one reason or another, those plans never materialized.
Upon opening, the property was a joint venture of Caesars Entertainment Corporation and Dan Gilbert’s Rock Gaming (which would later become JACK Entertainment). The property was originally branded as Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, but in an effort to gain liquid capital, Caesars Entertainment Corporation (who then handled the management of the property) would sell it completely to Dan Gilbert. After the sale, the property was rebranded in its current form.
While I am usually not the biggest fan of CET, nI must admit that the property downgraded slightly from a player’s perspective after the sale. For one thing, the property had been linked to the national Caesars Total Rewards program prior to the sale, but that went out the window. Furthermore, many have said that the quality of the eateries has dropped a little bit since Caesars got out of the property.
The casino floor consists of multiple levels, with machines being on both the first and second floors. In total, a combined 1,300+ video poker, video keno and slots games are offered ranging in denomination from pennies to hundreds.
There are over 100 gaming tables between the two floors with such games as Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Jack Jack, Commission Free Face Up Pai Gow Poker, I Luv Suits, Crapless Craps, Baccarat, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Let it Ride, Mississippi Stud, Three-Card Poker and Deuces and Joker Wild Poker. Obviously, not every single one of these games operates around the clock, so if you have a particular novelty game in mind, we recommend calling in advance for the general hours of operation.
Their website does not list the number of poker tables at the property, though it does have tournament schedules available. We can also come to know that they offer LImit Texas Hold ‘Em, No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em and Pot-Limit Omaha. Fortunately, they do state that they are listed on the Bravo Poker Live site/app, so you can use that to see what games are in progress and get a general idea for how busy the poker room might be at the day and time of your visit.
The casino’s buffet is known as The Seven Chefs Buffet, and while I have not eaten there under the current branding, some people say that it is a slight downgrade from the buffet that operated at the property under the Horseshoe branding. Nonna Pazza is an Italian eatery that claims to make their food from scratch. Corky and Lenny’s is a deli. Finally, Wahlburger’s is a place for just that, but also suggests that they offer lighter fare, as well.
The property’s bars are Rock Bar and Lounge, Vintage 51 and Legends Bar. The entertainment section of the website just talks about some of the electronic table games that are available on the property, so if they do feature any live music, they’re certainly not doing much to promote it as of the time of this writing…so we won’t either.
Overall, we really don’t see much of a reason to go out of your way to go to this casino unless you happen to be in the Cleveland area already. It’s certainly a nice enough casino, but there’s nothing there that can’t be found at every reasonably-sized casino you’ve ever been to and there’s also nothing particularly unique about the property. If we could go to only one casino in Ohio, the following casino is the one we would choose after the rebranding is complete:
Jack Cincinnati Casino
JACK Casino in Cincinnati was formerly operated as Horseshoe Cincinnati by Caesars Entertainment and owned in conjunction with Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) owner Dan Gilbert. The casino would later be sold to Vici Properties (real property) with the operation of the casino going to Hard Rock International as Dan Gilbert would retain only the Cleveland Casino in the State of Ohio. Caesars initially divested itself of its interest in any Ohio casinos to generate some really badly needed cash.
The casino floor for this location is a bit smaller than either of the Hollywoods, but it still spans roughly 100,000 square feet of gaming space. This property also competes a little bit more with other states as there are not only nearby casinos in Indiana, but also a few of the racinos happen to be down in the Southwestern part of Ohio along with JACK.
It apparently suits Hard Rock International to retain the Jack Casino name for the time being, but we shall see what happens down the line, the sale was pretty recent, after all. Further, Hard Rock actually said the property would be rebranded as a Hard Rock Casino, it just hasn’t happened yet.
The property features roughly 2,000 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines with denominations ranging from pennies to hundreds. They also have nearly 100 table games and spread Criss Cross Poker, I luv Suits Poker, , Blackjack, Crapless Craps, Craps, Crazy 4 Poker, DJ Wild, Dragon Bonus Baccarat Commission Free, Dragon Bonus Mini/Midi Baccarat, Face Up Pai Gow Poker, Free Bet Blackjack, JACK JACK, Hot Hand Dice, Mississippi Stud, Roulette, Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Zappit Blackjack. As always, we must encourage you to call in advance if you are looking for one of the more novelty type games as they certainly do not operate around the clock seven days per week.
The poker room features regular tournaments, No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, Pot-Limit Omaha and Omaha 8.
The property’s buffet is known as the Seven Chefs Buffet, with each of the seven stations being dedicated to a different style/culture of food. Prism Steak and Seafood is the property’s fine dining establishment. Bobby’s Burger Palace refers to noted TV chef Bobby Flay and is featured at the property. Basil Leaf Pizza has just that and Noodle 8 features noodle-based dishes that are all $8. Funny thing about that, that’s also how Super 8 got its start as a hotel way back when…all rooms were $8…not so much anymore. The Prism Bar and Lounge as well as Rock Bar and Lounge offers some bar type food and there is also a Starbucks location at the property.
It’s difficult to give any more in terms of specifics because the property is very much in a transitional period with the anticipated move being from JACK Casino branding to Hard ZRock Casino branding, but the latter is a definite improvement. JACK basically retained everything that Caesars Entertainment had done with Horseshoe, except they made it a bit worse.
Most impressive about this property is certainly the wide selection of table games as well as dining options. With Hard Rock International taking over this property, it’s quite reasonable that it can become one of the best, if not the best, gambling destinations in the Midwest. At least, if the positively gorgeous Hard Rock Casino Atlantic City is any indication.
Racinos
With the casinos covered, we are now ready to move on to the racinos. A few of these racetracks are actually not in their original locations simply because there was limited room on some of the properties to build the racino component. Other properties, such as Scioto Downs, did have sufficient room on their real estate to build a new structure for gaming and chose to do that.
Once again, the racinos are not permitted to have video poker or table games, so we will just go ahead and reiterate that now rather than having to say that for each individual listing. Maybe one day the racinos will be permitted to have video poker, even though that will cause the four casinos in the state to have an absolute hissy fit.
Belterra Park Gaming and Entertainment Center
This property is located in Cincinnati, Ohio and was formerly known as River Downs. It is owned and operated by Boyd Gaming, which seems an odd choice for them, as most of their holdings are casinos in Nevada. For whatever reason, they saw an opportunity in the Ohio racino market and decided to snatch this property up.
Prior to the Boyd Gaming purchase, the property was owned by Pinnacle Entertainment and sold to Boyd as part of a four property purchase, so that may have something to do with what would otherwise seem like an unusual choice by Boyd Gaming to own a racino.
As always, Boyd Gaming sites are not designed to work particularly well on Chrome, so here’s what they get until they decide to fix that:
They have Video Lottery Terminals. They sometimes have live racing. They always have simulcast racing during hours that their televised tracks are running.
This Chrome issue has been going on for years and, for whatever reason, Boyd Gaming chooses to do nothing about it. We’ve never had any problem accessing the website of any other casino chain as it is meant to be displayed.
Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway
Unfortunately, the scourge on the casino market that is Gaming and Leisure Properties (real estate owner) and their operating partner (snicker) Penn National Gaming has elected to blight Dayton, Ohio with their presence in the form of Hollywood Gaming at Penn National Raceway.
Interestingly enough, this property was technically originally called Raceway Park and was located in Toledo, Ohio. No, Gaming and Leisure Properties did not physically pick up the racetrack and move it a few hundred miles, instead, they were given permission by the state to relocate the raceway to Dayton, Ohio (new facilities) and put in the Video Lottery Terminals to avoid either essentially competing with themselves in Toledo, or alternatively, selling the Toledo property to a different operator.
God forbid that Hollywood actually face competition in one of their casino markets, right? The entire gaming situation in the State of Ohio stinks to high Heaven. The State Government and lottery department should be listed as an employee of the casinos in the state.
The total gaming space is listed as over 180,000+ square feet, but that’s somewhat misleading, because it includes the simulcasting facility and possibly even the grandstands and the racetrack itself. The gaming floor is home to more than 1,000 video lottery terminals.
Eateries include the Skybox Sports Bar, featuring casual lounge food, and the Take 2 Grill which is the place for grab and go type eats. The property’s bar is known as the H Lounge and generally features live musical entertainment on weekends. It should come as no surprise to anyone that Hollywood lacks the creativity and imagination to even call the restaurants something different in their racinos.
Simulcast racing is available from noon to midnight seven days per week. The live harness racing season generally runs from September through December every year, mostly on weekends. Trackside concessions are available.
Basically, this is the same as any other Hollywood Casino, with the only difference being that it is a racino that is a bit smaller than the other properties. It looks exactly the same and the experience is exactly the same, except there is less to experience.
The only reason this establishment even exists is because the state of Ohio is bought and paid for by the casino companies and will do basically whatever is asked of it.
Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course
Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course is yet another Hollywood property that is just like every other Hollywood property that exists anywhere. The property is located in Austintown, Ohio and is near other cities such as Canfield and Youngstown. This would be the perfect area to have something of a, “Parlor market,” but it’s unlikely the State of Ohio will ever allow that because it would upset the poor casino companies.
Once again, this property is something of a replacement property for the Beulah Park racetrack that was located in Columbus, Ohio. Permission for this was granted because Hollywood Casino would otherwise be competing with its own Columbus location as well as with Scioto Downs, also located in Columbus.
The total gaming area consists of about 100,000 square feet of space. Hollywood doesn’t see fit to put a machine count on their website, and who really cares anyway, but the total is about 1,000 video lottery terminals ranging in denomination from pennies to $25.
Harlan’s Holiday is a place for grab and go and snack food open from Thursday-Sunday as well as during live racing events. The grab and go location in the main casino is called the Take 2 Grill, because it’s a Hollywood property, so what the hell else would it be called? There is also a location called Trackside, in the racing area, that is a glorified concession stand.
The racino generally has entertainment at the H Lounge (what else would that be called?) on Fridays with a schedule available on their website. The simulcast racing schedule is seven days per week from noon to midnight and live racing generally takes place from January to the middle of April.
That’s it for this one, our advice is honestly to take the drive and go to Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, instead. Other than Meadows Casino, which Penn National Gaming didn’t even create in the first place, (Cannery Casino Resorts did) Hollywood doesn’t have an original bone in its body. All of the properties are almost entirely the same, even down to the names of the eateries in most cases and there is nothing particularly unique about any of them. More than that, as if having a strictly cookie-cutter theme and branding wasn’t bad enough, it’s a totally boring and unimaginative brand. It’s worth going to a Hollywood property once in your life and never again, unless it just happens to be the only thing a reasonable distance from you and you REALLY want to gamble. That said, if you enjoy an extremely boring and predictable experience, then this is the place for you.
Jack Thistledown Racino
Located in North Randall, Ohio and owned and operated by JACK Entertainment, this location is also commonly called Thistledowns. The original owners, Magna Entertainment, would file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010 and this property was purchased by Caesars Entertainment two years later. Eventually, Caesars would opt to divest itself of all of its Ohio properties in order to generate some liquid cash, so it was then sold to Dan Gilbert’s JACK Entertainment.
After that, the physical property for both this and JACK Cleveland Casino was sold to Vici Properties who then leased the properties back to JACK who is the operator of both properties under the Rock Gaming management.
The racetrack at the property is a one-mile dirt harness racing track. The property is home to more than 1300 video lottery terminals.
The property’s signature eatery is Millcreek Grill, Nonna Pazza is an Italian diner and there are two quick serve food court type locations. The property is also home to three bars and a lounge, but they are not usually all operating simultaneously. The racino also makes it a point to note that they have a smoking gaming patio.
All in all, unless you like mediocre horse racing, this is just a big slot house that is geared towards denizens of the area. Personally, I wouldn’t even stop here if I were driving directly past it. The only thing worse than JACK taking over the properties from Caesars Entertainment is if it had been Hollywood who acquired them instead.
MGM Northfield Park
MGM Northfield Park is located in Northfield, Ohio and has the most live racing nights of any of the Ohio racinos. Again, this is one that seems like a strange choice for MGM as they are usually more known for resort type casinos in major casino areas. Granted, they have made it point to expand into markets outside of Nevada, but most of those have been large projects as opposed to racinos.
The property was owned by Brock Milstein via Milstein Entertainment prior to becoming a racino, at that point, he leased over the management of the property to Hard Rock International and it became known as Hard Rock Northfield. Milstein would later sell the property MGM Growth Properties who continued to have Hard Rock operate it for some time prior to them deciding to buy the operating rights from Hard Rock International and rebrand the property as an MGM property.
Again, it just seems like a really strange market for MGM to get into as they usually focus on more major casino properties, but if the place is turning a profit, why not?
The total gaming space is considered to be 200,000 square feet, but that certainly includes racing operations. Again, the only form of gaming outside of the racing consists of the video lottery terminals and there is no earthly reason why they would have 200K square feet just devoted to that.
The property does not make a precise slot count easily accessible on the website, but they do make it a point to highlight the smoking patio with about 240 games available there. For a property that amounts to almost nothing of interest to most gamblers, myself included, their website sure has a lot of different pages probably designed to make the property seem like more than it actually is…a race track and glorified overgrown slot parlor.
The property seems to feature live entertainment in the way of comedy, music or karaoke on some weekend days.
The eateries at the property include Kosar’s Wood-Fire Grill, which is something of an upscale casual environment. Concerto Italian Kitchen is your place for pizzas and pasta. TAP Sports Bar features drink and lounge type food, the buffet is called The Buffet…creative…and The Roasted Bean is the property’s coffee shop.
The property is also home to a gas station for which gas can apparently be purchased with players club points. I guess that’s something.
To say that MGM minimizes the racing component of the property would be an understatement as they neglect to mention it at all on their website. Instead, there is a completely separate site for Northfield Park racing that makes little mention of the racino. A separate eatery, Lady Luck’s Clubhouse, is located at the racetrack and operates during live racing season. Live racing takes place on certain days year round, over 200 in total and simulcasting is available seven days per week.
Miami Valley Gaming
Miami Valley Gaming is located in Turtlecreek Township, Ohio and is a joint (50/50) venture of Delaware North Company and Churchill Downs Racing. Delaware North Company is mostly engaged in sports stadium and airport concessions, but does own a number of different casinos and racinos scattered throughout the country. The property originally known as Lebanon Raceway was purchased by the joint venture, but the racino component was actually permitted to be built quite a few miles from the racetrack because the State of Ohio does whatever the casino companies want it to do.
The property consists of 1,900 video lottery terminals and is pretty similar in appearance and design to Delaware North’s Wheeling Island Hotel, Casino Racetrack property, with the exception of being newer. There are some aesthetic differences, though, so we’re not talking the sort of similarity to the level of Hollywood Casinos or anything like that.
Eateries include Cin City, which is the property’s fine dining establishment mostly open on weekend evenings. The property’s buffet is known as Acres Buffet. The Trifecta Eatery essentially amounts to a food court with pizza, burgers and things of that nature. Finally, MY Perks is essentially a coffee and juice shop with a grab and go menu.
Simulcast wagering is available seven days per week from noon to midnight and live racing runs from the beginning of the year to the early part of May. The property’s bar (racino part) is known as Center Bar and generally features some sort of live entertainment on weekends with a schedule available on the website.
Please keep in mind that if you enjoy both video lottery terminals and simulcast wagering that you cannot simply walk from one thing to the other at this location as they are several miles apart. If your preference is just one or the other, then you’re in fine shape.
Scioto Downs Racino
Scioto Downs Racino is located in Columbus, Ohio and is owned and operated by El Dorado Gaming. In fact, the official name is actually El Dorado Gaming Scioto Downs, but just about everybody simply calls it Scioto Downs. The property was previously owned by MTR Gaming, as with the Mountaineer Casino in Chester, West Virginia, but was sold to El Dorado in that purchase. The total gaming space is 117,000 square feet, which also consists of the simulcast and horse betting areas, but that said, it does have one of the larger Video Lottery Terminal floors of the state’s racinos.
This property would become the first of the state’s racinos to operate the video lottery terminals and actually had the Columbus market to themselves prior to the opening of Hollywood Casino in Columbus. The property conducts simulcast racing around the calendar and is also home to a state high of 2,200+ video lottery terminals.
Of all of the racino type properties, this is the one that probably most looks like an actual casino. They also led a push to have table games and video poker authorized for the racinos, but unfortunately, those efforts failed. Scioto Downs had even gone as far as to portion off a section of the casino that was going to be meant for table games.
While Scioto Downs’ racetrack would remain in the original location it had occupied for decades, the racino building itself was a new structure built in the early 2010’s specifically for that purpose. There are a few doors and a walkway that link the two buildings together, and the simulcast area was also patched up and updated a bit, so it’s not like walking from a golden cathedral into a slum.
In this writer’s opinion, Scioto Downs is also one of the nicer racino properties anywhere and compares favorably to even major casinos. Everything is kept neat and clean and Scioto Downs keeps with the El Dorado theme of being nicely appointed and well-lit, of course, that was the case even when it was owned and operated by MTR Gaming. Here comes an unusual statement: Nicest restroom facilities I have ever seen in a casino.
The property makes note of an, “Open air gaming terrace,” with 250 games, which is an extremely fancy way of saying, “Smoking patio.” Simulcast betting takes place seven days a week year round whilst live harness racing runs from May through September.
There are a number of eateries available at the casino including Brew Brothers, which features burgers as well as wood-fire cooked pizzas. The property’s buffet is called The Grove Buffet and having eaten there I can say…it exists. I would definitely not pay to eat at this buffet and if it was offered for free, I’d have to really think about it. The Dash Cafe is the property’s coffee shop and also has some grab and go choices. The Clubhouse basically amounts to an ultra casual place located in the grandstands of the racetrack.
Overall, we would recommend a visit to this property if you’re in the Columbus area and it is probably the only Ohio racino we can really say that about. The gaming offerings aren’t anything amazing, when it comes to the racinos they are very limited in what they can do, but the facilities are extremely nice…just avoid the buffet.
Casinos/Racinos in General
It’s really tough to recommend any of the casinos and racinos in Ohio because The Buckeye State is just so corrupt and in the pocket of the casino companies to the point of complete and total absurdity. The laws essentially end up being whatever the casino companies want them to be, the gaming commission is toothless; the state is in bed with the casinos completely. Entire racetracks were relocated (so are literally no longer the same racetrack) just so that casinos could pick and choose where they would have, or not have, competition.
The short story is that the casino companies can get away with virtually whatever they want in this state and, if you do not live in Ohio, we would suggest going around this state in your casino tours as a form of protest. If you do live in Ohio and are within a reasonable distance of casinos in other states, then we strongly recommend considering a visit to those instead. There is no reason to give the Ohio casinos, or the state, by way of their taxation of the casinos, your money. Most of the locations don’t even have to compete in terms of gaming offerings because the State of Ohio made it so that they have no competition for the locals market.
More than that, the four major casinos in Ohio essentially face no competition when it comes to table games and video poker, except for those situations in which they are close to casinos in other states. They are spread so far apart that they have absolutely no incentive to have any decent video poker offerings.
Even if you live in Ohio, maybe consider avoiding that weekly trip to one of these locations and maybe save up and go to Las Vegas or Atlantic City for a bit instead. Hell, go to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan or Illinois for a weekend and check those places out. While nothing is perfect, at least the state is not openly corrupt and in the casinos’ collective bag with what they are doing. The whole thing in Ohio just stinks to high Heaven.
The only thing that we will say to the state’s credit is that they have a minimum legal slot return of 85%, which is at least greater than that of many other states. At a minimum, it at least means that the worst possible return settings of certain slot machines will not appear in the state.
Ohio Slot Machine Ownership
Unlike most states, people can purchase any type of slot machine regardless of when the machine was created. It is, however, illegal to operate a casino without a license.
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Conclusion And Prognosis
In conclusion, we don’t expect the casino status quo to change much in the state when it comes to gambling, aside from the fact that the casinos (but probably not the racinos) will be authorized to conduct sports betting operations any given month now. The racinos will likely continue not to be permitted to offer table games or video poker at the behest of the casino industry interests, and as discussed, what the four major casinos want, they usually get.
While gambling online itself is generally not illegal for people acting as mere players, there has been no real discussion of authorizing, legalizing and regulating online gambling through the state. We imagine that may happen eventually, but it could be a long time coming as they seem mainly focused on land casino sports betting right now. It stands to reason that many of the racinos (particularly those not linked to casinos with any form of online gambling) will be opposed to the online gambling measures (if they happen) as it would likely draw business away from them and to the land casinos’ online sites. The casinos and racinos whose companies have an online presence in other states already would likely be in favor.
It’s also difficult to say whether or not the companies who only own racinos would be permitted to have online operations, even if legalized. The reason for that is that they are already not permitted to offer video poker or table games as the state seems really adamant about not placing them on a level playing field with the land casinos. Currently, Hard Rock is the only land casino in the state with an online presence in other states.
The authorization of additional land casinos (as opposed to racinos) in the state also seems equally unlikely as the state at least seems to want to strictly control the number of casino operations. More than that, the casino companies in the state would likely be unhappy with any increased competition and the state already does everything it can to prevent them from having to compete with anybody.
References
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You must be 21 or older to gamble in Ohio
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