Casinos contribute $37.9 million to Ohio school districts, counties share $20.5 million more

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nearly eight months after the state’s first casino opened for business, school districts throughout Ohio will share in the first of the promised funds: $37.9 million.

Ohio’s three operating casinos pay a 33 percent tax on their profits after all winnings are paid. Fifty-one percent of that is split among the state’s 88 counties, 34 percent of that is split between the state’s school districts and five percent is set aside for the host cities of Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus.

In dollars and cents, that amounts to $3.65 million for school districts in Cuyahoga County based on the number of students with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District slated to get $821,831, Parma $235,530 and Shaker Heights $112,437, for example.

Schools in Summit County will share $1.63 million, Lorain $1 million and Medina $637,000.

For Cuyahoga County, that means $1.47 million with the city of Cleveland netting $2.53 million. $1 million of that coming from their share for being a host city and $1.47 million for being Cuyahoga County’s largest city with a population of more than 80,000.

Two other northeast Ohio cities also fall into the population category and get to share half of their county’s casino take based on population. They are Akron, which gets the same $625,005 share that Summit County does, while Stark County and its largest city Canton will each get $434,267.

These figures will only grow in 2013 as the three open casinos enjoy their first full year of operation while the state’s fourth casino, the Horseshoe Cincinnati opens in March.