Ohio casinos report record month, Illinois struggles

It was a record-setting month in Ohio as the state’s 11 casinos and racinos announced that they had smashed records for revenue in January. Meanwhile, things are not looking as bright two states to the west. For the seventh straight year, gambling revenues from the 10 casinos in Illinois decreased over the previous year.

In Ohio, all of its facilities combined took in $167 million in revenue after paying out all of their winnings. This was a 19% increase over what the facilities had set as a record in January 2019 when they brought in $141 million.

That kind of revenue is a big deal to the state, which receives about one-third of the total winnings. That means about $56 million went to the state of Ohio last year.

Each of the states four casinos and seven racinos reported an increase in revenue in January of this year as compared to last. Leading the way was the Hollywood Casino Columbus, which took in a total $20.4 million in revenue from their table games and slot machines. Among slots-only racinos, MGM Northfield Park had the highest revenue, coming in at $22.9 million. This was a $1.3 million increase over January 2019.