This time for slot payback reporting we’re taking a look at Ohio’s casinos. They’re broken into two groups:
- Four commercial casinos, one in each of Ohio’s four major cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo.
- Seven racetrack casinos overseen by the Ohio lottery.
Both commercial casinos and video lottery terminal games through the Ohio Lottery-overseen casinos must pay back over time a minimum of 85 percent.
We will look at each group of casinos in turn. For symmetry, we will evaluate what are the fiscal years of 2019-2022 for the video lottery terminals, and have aligned the commercial casino data to match that. As such, when a year is listed, like 2022, it covers July 1 of the previous year through June 30 of that year. So 2022 covers the period of July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.
Commercial Casinos
Here’s the paybacks for the four commercial casinos for the year-long period ending June 30, 2019 through 2022:
| Year | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Jack Cleveland | 92.29% | 92.22% | 92.21% | 92.16% |
| Hollywood Columbus | 92.40% | 92.24% | 91.99% | 92.09% |
| Hard Rock Cincinnati | 92.02% | 91.78% | 91.64% | 91.87% |
| Hollywood Toledo | 91.68% | 91.44% | 91.05% | 90.72% |
Some observations:
- All the casinos seem to be in a relatively consistent range.
- Hollywood Toledo grew in payouts over the four year range, slowly approaching the other three, including the top payer, sister property Hollywood Columbus.
- Hard Rock Cincinnati used to be Jack Cincinnati.
Racetrack Casinos
Here’s the paybacks for the seven racetrack casinos for the fiscal years 2019-2022:
| Year | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Belterra Park | 90.15% | 90.08% | 91.05% | 91.15% |
| Eldorado Scioto Downs | 90.82% | 90.61% | 90.78% | 90.73% |
| MGM Northfield Park | 90.97% | 90.67% | 91.13% | 91.09% |
| Hollywood Dayton | 91.47% | 91.11% | 90.87% | 90.28% |
| Hollywood Mahoning Valley | 90.66% | 90.33% | 90.29% | 90.10% |
| Jack Thistledown | 90.85% | 90.58% | 90.50% | 90.60% |
| Miami Valley | 91.22% | 91.12% | 91.39% | 91.52% |
Some observations:
- The overall paybacks of the racetrack casinos seem a bit lower than their commercial casino counterparts.
- Hollywood Dayton, and Miami Valley took the top spot in the various years, but the overall spread is pretty tight – about 1-1.5 percent or so separates the top from the bottom of the group in any given year.
