During the same period, the amount of money wagered on the table games rose from $108 million to $113.7 million, or 5.28 percent.
But when Miami Valley Gaming opened its doors at noon Thursday, there were no table games, just like all the racinos in the state. The Warren County venue includes 1,600 electronic slot machines or video lottery terminals, two restaurants and two bars alongside an off-track betting parlor and harness track and grandstand. Live standardbred racing at the racino begins Feb. 7, 2014, and will be run five nights a week, Wednesdays through Sundays.
Last Saturday was the final night of live racing at Lebanon Raceway, which opened in 1948.
Now that Miami Valley Gaming has opened, gamblers have seven new casino or racino options in the region, which includes Ohio and eastern Indiana. By next September, nine racinos or casinos will be operating within a 90-minute drive of Miami Valley on Ohio 63, just east of Interstate 75.
There are 12 casinos in Indiana and Ohio eventually will have four casinos and four racinos.
Unlike Ohio’s and Kentucky’s casinos, the racinos don’t offer poker or other table games. So David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, said the racinos will have to win over customers with better service. He said increasing the percentage of payouts, even a percentage point, can attract additional gamblers. “That means your money is going to last a little bit longer,” he said.
He said there’s a risk that all the casinos and racinos in the state will cut into each other’s business.. He said the figures from the start of legal gambling in Ohio “don’t suggest there’s a ton of growth” likely in the gambling industry.
Jim Simms, president and general manager of Miami Valley Gaming, believes it was imperative to open before the racinos in Dayton and Cincinnati. By next fall, two more racinos are scheduled to open, east of Cincinnati at Belterra Park at the former River Downs and in north Dayton at Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway, the former Delphi plant at Wagner Ford and Needmore roads.
Miami Valley Gaming is expected to generate at least $24 million per year for local communities and provide more than 500 jobs in the region.
For a state that didn’t have one casino or racino until Horseshoe Cleveland opened in May 14, 2012, the competition for gamblers’ dollars is stiff. Some have questioned whether there are enough dollars to go around.
But Alan Silver, a professor of restaurants, hotels and tourism at Ohio University, who also teaches casino operations, said casino and racino projections say Miami Valley is well-positioned to hit its $125 million annual target, despite the growing number of gaming opportunities in southwest Ohio.
To survive, he said, those who operate the gaming properties must figure out how to attract — and more importantly, keep — customers. He predicted that the casinos and racinos in Ohio, especially those in the southwest portion of the state, will have a negative impact on the casinos in Indiana.
Simms has said that Miami Valley has aggressively marketed itself throughout the region with newspaper, TV and radio advertisements and billboards.
The advertising is just one thing that attracted Jim and Cathy Turner of Cincinnati to Miami Valley Gaming on its opening day. More than an hour before the racino opened, the Turners grabbed a quick lunch at Wendy’s near the racino. Cathy Turner said the racino offers something that no other casino in the area has — horse racing and slot machines.
She was excited to spend the afternoon playing the video terminals while her husband was looking forward to betting the horses simulcast on TV.
“We’re going to see who runs out of money first,” she said.
“It will be her,” her husband said. “And she’ll be over to borrow money.”
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