Ohio casinos and racinos mark new record in 2021 with $2.31B in gambling revenue

The Ohio Casino Control and Lottery Commission released Thursday a report on the state’s slot revenue in 2021, which shows that racinos and casinos generated $2.31 billion, striking a yearly record that was broken in November. 

Combined, the casinos and racinos had sales of $197 million in December up from $133 million in 2015. Ohio broke the record for 9 in the past 10 years, with a hiatus in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the casinos and racinos and enforced curfews for parts of the year. 

In 2020, a year of closings and curfews, the casinos and Racinos created earnings of $ 1.44 billion. They earned $ 2.31 billion in 2021, breaking the 2019 record of $ 1.94 billion.

The 3 gambling facilities in the Cleveland-Akron location, JACK Cleveland Casino, JACK Thistledown Racino and MGM Northfield Park, all saw boosts in December compared to December 2020.

• MGM Northfield Park had sales of $ 23 million, up from $ 14.2 million last December.
• JACK Cleveland Casino was $ 21.7 million, below $ 13.2 million.
• JACK Thistledown Racino was $ 16.7 million versus $ 10.6 million.

Overall, MGM Northfield raised $ 273.9 million in video gaming earnings for 2021. JACK Cleveland raised $ 257.4 million and JACK Thistledown raised $ 199.1 million.

Casinos pertained to the state in May 2012 when JACK Cleveland Casino (then called Horseshoe Cleveland) opened. Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo included the latter casinos. The Racinos opened on racetracks in June 2012, with Scioto Downs being the very first. In 2012, the state saw $ 430 million in gambling revenue, according to an analysis of state records by cleveland.com.