CLEVELAND — While inflation is having an increasing impact on many aspects of the economy, gambling doesn’t appear to be one of them. Since Ohio’s casinos and racinos reopened in the summer of 2020 after the pandemic forced shutdown, their numbers have been record breaking and while they may be plateauing lately they're not retreating based on figures released Tuesday for August.
"Despite kind of strong, macro-economic headwinds that not just our industry but every industry is facing we're seeing a record year for commercial gaming across the country,” said Casey Clark, Senior V.P. of the American Gaming Association. “Through Q2 of this year we're up 18% over last year which was of course a good year and in Ohio still despite some slowing of those month-to-month comparisons to last year is still having record years,” he said.
The numbers for August show the state's four casinos brought in over $84.2 million after all bets were paid, a $1.8 million or 2.2% jump over last year. The seven racinos brought in $111.7 million down just over a .1% point from last year.
Among local properties such as the JACK Cleveland Casino saw revenue fall by just .4% in August as they took in $21.8 million while the JACK Thistledown was down $1.3 million from last year or 7.6%. They took in $15.7 million after all bets were paid. MGM Northfield Park on the other hand continues to be the leader bringing in $24.2 million after all bets were paid, up 4.2 percent.
The incredible stats though emerge when you compare the figures not to last year or 2020 but rather to the last August before COVID in 2019. In that case, state numbers and numbers at the local properties are all up double digits. JACK Cleveland Casino is up 21.3% from August of 2019, JACK Thistledown up 28.7% and MGM Northfield Park up 16.8%.
"Coming from the long way that we've come out of the pandemic together in the gaming community across the country including strong, strong growth in Ohio it's been a remarkable turnaround,” Clark said.
