Horseshoe Casino brings in $42.6 million in first month and a half

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ohio's first two casinos have only been open for less than two months, but they're already generating tax money that will soon be distributed around the state.

Figures released Monday by the Ohio Department of Taxation show Cleveland's Horseshoe Casino and Toledo's Hollywood generated more than $19.7 million in taxes since they opened their doors in May.

The Horseshoe Casino posted an adjusted gross revenue of $42.6 million, that is money left after winnings are paid, for the period of May 14 to June 30.

$11.2 million of that was from table games, $31.4 million from slots.

Looking only at the month of June, which is the first month of full operation, the Horseshoe brought in $18.5 million in gross slots revenue. That’s actually less than seven of Pennsylvania’s 11 casinos. Presque Isle Downs in Erie brought in $12.4 million, while Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino brought in $23.6 million in June.

The Rivers though has more slots, so their daily take per machine was $266 compared to the Horseshoe’s daily take of $296.41 which would put it in line with the three Pennsylvania casinos in and around Philadelphia and almost identical to Hollywood Toledo’s $296.03 per machine, per day.

The Horseshoe’s machines had a payout of 88.4 percent while Toledo’s was 90.9 percent.

While those numbers were almost identical the June table game numbers were not. Horseshoe generated an adjusted gross revenue of $7.59 million compared to Hollywood Toledo’s $2.68 million.

"I think it's pretty much in line with what they were expecting,” said casino analyst Roger Gros. “It's a decent number, it's a number that a mid level Atlantic City casino would get."

Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business, expects the Horseshoe to only improve on its $26 million June.

“I think those numbers will ramp up though as the marketing matures and they get to know the market better, I would imagine, you'd probably see somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 million in probably about a year," he said pointing to Caesars vast data base of customers worldwide.

“That Total Rewards program is a killer, they really understand their players, they really can segment and market to the most profitable players so I think probably in about a year I would probably see it $10 million higher,” Gros said.

The tax on gross casino revenue is 33 percent, of that 51 percent is divided among the state’s 88 counties by population, 34 percent will be divided among the state’s school districts and five percent to the host cities of Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati.

So for Cuyahoga County, that means $554,000. The city of Cleveland will also get $554,000 as the largest city plus an additional $648,000 as a casino host city brining their second quarter take to $1.2 million.

Summit and Stark counties will also split their share with their largest host city, with Summit County and Akron to each get $235,000, and Stark County and Canton to each get $163,000.

$6.7 million will be distributed among the state's public school districts based on population.