May was another good month for the Ohio market, even if Dan Gilbert‘s two casinos continue to slump. Perhaps they are suffering the post-
bankruptcy malaise that affects nearly all regional casinos managed by Caesars Entertainment. Hard to say. Horseshoe Cleveland was down 2% and only very narrowly beat out Hard Rock Rocksino (up 16.5%) for the top-grossing spot in the state. At that rate, you have to wonder if Gilbert is going to go through with the promised Phase II of the casino on the Cuyahoga River. Fast-fading Horseshoe Cincinnati ebbed 3%. Pinnacle Entertainment‘s Belterra Park continues to be the biggest disappointment in the state, grossing $6 million, even if its $151/slot/day was well over Deutsche Bank‘s expectations.
Penn National Gaming, meanwhile, goes from strength to strength. Horseshoe Columbus was flat but posted one of the state’s highest grosses, while Hollywood Toledo gained 4.5%, registering an above-industry-average $224/slot/per day. Penn’s racinos were a bunch of little powerhouses: $241/slot/day at Hollywood Dayton and an out-of-this-world $290/slot/day at Hollywood Austintown. Racino owners experiencing difficulty were Gilbert’s Thistledown Racetrack, down 8%, and Miami Valley Gaming, off 2%. Eldorado Resorts‘ Scioto Downs was up 5%.
* Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) finds himself between a budgetary hard rock (a balloon payment on pension funds) and a hard place: a budget deficit for the Windy City’s schools. So, with Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) disinclined to bail him out, he’s thinking outside the box and proposing a publicly owned casino whose revenues would go exclusively toward pension obligations, property- and sales-tax increases being off the table. Legislators have offered Emanuel half a loaf, proposing a few years of exclusivity before those revenues would revert to the state.
As the Wall Street Journal points out, gambling for public works is as old as “Yankee Doodle,” with the three original colonies funding infrastructure through lotteries. Then, somewhere along the way, “gambling” became a dirty word. Illinois lawmakers collected $501 million in gaming taxes last year, though, and are hungry for more. The WSJ is a Debbie Downer about Emanuel’s proposal, citing an unfounded prediction of the “not unlikely chance that the joint goes bust.” Actually, a casino at the heart of Chicago, close to millions of consumers would be in far less danger of closing than would some of the existing riverboat casinos upon whom legislators want to inflict heavy, new, suburban competition, including a gaggle of racinos by which state revenue leader Rivers Casino could be heavily impacted.
