Horseshoe Cincinnati’s March revenues best in a year
CINCINNATI — March traditionally is the best month for gambling operations, and new tallies show the Horseshoe Cincinnati Casino had its best month for revenues since a year ago.
Last month’s results for the Horseshoe Cincinnati, with $17.5 million in revenues, bested every month since March a year ago. Revenues in March 2014 came in at $20.1 million.
The downtown Cincinnati casino’s best month ever was its first; it reported revenue of $21 million in March 2013. It has hit the $20 million mark one other time — in March 2014.
“It turned out to be a pretty nice month for us,” Horseshoe spokeswoman Shannon Mortland said. “We have all the racinos open so we should start to see the whole industry throughout the state level out a bit.”
Mortland said the stage is going up soon for the Horseshoe’s outdoor concert series, which begins May 16 on the casino’s acre of greenspace. Among the bands that will be playing at the venue in the coming months: Steve Miller Band, Alice in Chains, Judas Priest, and Weezer.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission and the Ohio Lottery, which oversees the state’s racinos, released Tuesday their monthly reports tracking gambling revenues.
The state’s four casinos and seven racinos posted nearly identical totals in March with the casinos ($72.9 million) edging out the racinos ($72.7 million) by just $155,000.
The only time Ohio’s four casinos have surpassed $80 million in adjusted gross revenue in a single month was in March 2013 when they brought in $84.3 million.
Miami Valley Gaming near Lebanon had net winnings in March of $10.9 million, a robust 14.5 percent bump over February. It reported $126.5 million in wagers and its slot machines’ 91.36 percent payout was the highest among Ohio’s seven racinos.
Meanwhile, Ohio Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp., is introducing legislation that would eliminate free play unless the industry meet certain revenue benchmarks. Coley plans to introduce legislation Thursday that will limit casinos and racinos to $5 million a year each in free play if they reach the ambitious goals.
“We allow them to deduct that from gaming revenue and not pay taxes,” Coley said. “I’ve heard the analogy we’re kind of partners in this process; the state gets 33 percent of the revenue and the casinos get 67 percent. What kind of partnership is it where the junior partner pays 100 percent of this expense? It’s getting out of control.”
Casino operators are calling the proposal double taxation.
“As such, these credits are not revenue to the casinos,” Rock Ohio Caesars, which operates casinos in Cincinnati and Cleveland, said in a statement. “These are previously taxed casino revenues that the casino has chosen to reinvest in the competitive marketing of our business.
“This proposal represents a clear example of double taxation. The credits are no different than coupons used by most businesses to draw people to their product.”
