Rock Gaming, which has been partners for several years with Caesars Entertainment in casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati and the ThistleDown Racino in North Randall, will soon take over management and 100 percent ownership of all three.
The management from Caesars to Rock Gaming should be completed by the middle of next year. The Horseshoe name will be replaced by another brand, as yet unrevealed, and the casinos will be unplugged from the Caesars Total Rewards system.
Caesars signed over ownership of the three casinos in February of this year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the month before. Besides those casinos, Rock Gaming now owns the Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland, the former Higbee Building in Cleveland and majority interesting in the Turfway Park in Kentucky as well as the Greektown Casino-Hotel in Detroit.
Rock Gaming CEO Matt Cullen declared recently, “This is an exciting time for us and we are eager to take the reins of day-to-day operations. We view this as an opportunity to leverage our unique culture and vast network of companies to grow the business and further connect the casinos to the downtown areas where they reside.” He added “We appreciate Caesars’ commitment in helping develop three world-class gaming facilities, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them in Baltimore and with Caesars Interactive Entertainment.”
The casinos will remain open during the switchover and Rock Gaming has said it plans to retain all of the employees as part of “the Rock Gaming family.”
Rock Gaming employs a total of over 7,000, operates more than 400,000 square feet of gaming space with 13,000 gaming positions and more than 600 hotel rooms in four states. It opened Ohio’s first casino, Horseshoe Cleveland, in 2012 and about a year later opened the Horseshoe Cincinnati. It opened the ThistleDown Racino a month later.
