Despite a strong start in January, Ohio’s casinos are now facing a drop in revenue due to the coronavirus fallout.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission and Lottery Commission released reports containing the earnings information for March 2020. The four casinos and seven racinos that operate in the state lost close to $112.3m in revenue. Only $71.9m was earned during March, a 61% drop compared to March 2019, when the casinos earned $184.2m.
The industry came to a halt in the middle of March when Governor Mike DeWine released a directive to either shut casino doors or find a way to keep less than 100 people in the buildings at a time.
The drop is especially evident because the start of the year was successful for the state’s casino market. January’s revenue was $167.5m, which rose to $171.4m in February. All the sums are after giving out the win prizes and paying all necessary taxes.
JACK Cleveland Casino earned $4m from slots, which is a substantial drop from $10.3m earned in March 2019. The same can be seen in Hollywood Toledo: its total revenue for March 2020 was $7.7m, less than half of the previous year when it gained $19.8m.
All casinos in the state were closed on March 14, with less than half a month of normal operations.