Horseshoe Casino brings in $42.6M 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.

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.