The Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway, Ohio’s sixth racino, opened last week with a ribbon cutting and opening ceremonies. Soon it will be opened by a racino near Youngstown, filling out the state’s seven racinos.
The racetrack deploys 1,000 video lottery terminals (VLTs) and employs 500 workers. Visitors can choose from four eateries, including a sports bar that seats 150.
The racino expects to attract 1 million visitors annually. Besides the machines, it will offer live harness racing beginning next month with simulcast horse racing already in progress. The operation is open 24/7.
It will be competing with Miami Valley Gaming racino in Turtlecreek Township, about 45 minutes away. It has been open eight months.
Austintown’s Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course is scheduled to open September 17. It will be operated by Penn National Gaming Inc., which operates all Hollywood brand casinos. Besides 850 VLTs, it will offer 21 days of thoroughbred racing beginning November 24.
As it prepared to open Bob Tenenbaum, Penn’s spokesman, told reporters, “We think we have the experience to know what’s going to work and what isn’t.”
Penn spent $50 million for the license and $75 million for the right to relocate the racino from Columbus to Austintown, near Youngstown in order to avoid competing against its casino resort in Columbus.
It will deploy 850 machines, down from the 1,500 originally planned. Penn said it preferred to start off conservatively.
The Austintown casino could pose competitive problems for Rivers Casino near Pittsburgh, but not as much as others in Pennsylvania. According to Craig Clark, Rivers’s general manager, who spoke to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “We would prefer not to have additional competitors in the market, but we get a very small percentage of our business from that region — less than 1 percent.”
Alex Bumazhny, gaming analyst for Fitch Ratings, agreements with that assessment. “The property will do OK, but it probably won’t do the type of numbers seen at Rivers or the Meadows,” Bumazhny told the Tribune-Review. “But it will do OK given its size and cost base.”
