Ohio leads the Midwest; Boyd a good neighbor in Iowa

With gaming expansion off the table in all Midwestern states (other than a potential tribal casino in Indiana), Ohio has been making out like a bandit, its gaming revenues up 13% from last year, as the state’s industry is now fully built out. “Since September 2015, the state has seen monthly gaming revenues continue to increase by an average of 6.1 percent compared to 2014,” reported a study by the RubinBrown firm. At $1.6 billion, the Buckeye State’s casino industry is smaller only than Indiana’s and Missouri‘s ($1.7 billion). Given its rate of growth, it should be in second place very soon. Overtaking Indiana ($2.1 billion) will be more difficult. The legalization of casino gambling in Ohio and Kansas is credited with making the Midwest the fastest-growing region for gaming revenue in the U.S.

Nationally, non-tribal casinos generated $38 billion in revenue (up 2%), the first year that many casinos saw their revenues grow since the Great Recession struck at the tail end of 2008. According to the American Gaming Association, gambling in Ohio translated into 17,600 jobs and $3 billion worth of economic impact. As much as detractors would hate to admit it, where gaming goes prosperity follows. Speaking of which …

* … in nine years, Boyd Gaming‘s Diamond Jo Worth played Lady Bountiful to 92 high school seniors, providing $7,674 scholarships to each one. Deb Hanson, CFO of the casino’s non-profit partner, Worth County Development Authority, says that when Diamond Jo opened, in April 2006, ““Even that first year being a partial year, we already had doubled what we thought” in anticipated scholarship money. Worth County has received $2.4 million since then but schools, students and infrastructure projects have received an infusion to the tune of $37.5 million. (Ninety-three percent of Diamond Jo’s nonprofit contributions are equally divided between schools and community grants.)

Who wouldn’t like a casino that gives students $75 a year toward school supplies? You’d have to be a real Grinch to begrudge that. It doesn’t hurt that, other than a slight recession in 2008, Diamond Jo’s revenues have continued to grow, year after year. (One can see why Boyd thought it was a good takeover candidate.) A litany of Diamond Jo’s good deeds would be too long to list here but it’s performing sufficiently well that a convenience store will soon be built hard by the casino and, where that goes, other economic development is sure to follow.

* Feeling the competitive pressure from Neil Bluhm‘s oncoming Rivers Casino in Schenectady, the execs at Saratoga Casino & Raceway are trying to fight back with a Morton’s steakhouse and a new boutique hotel. But that’s not enough. They feel that a change of name is in order. If they really want to get the public invested, the should hold a contest to come up with a new moniker and award a mess o’ free play to the customer with the winning submission.

* No surprise here: California led all states for tribal-gaming revenue last year, its 72 tribal gambling halls raking in over $7 billion and riding a 4% increase. That’s one-quarter of the entire tribal gaming industry’s haul. Equally unsurprisingly, Oklahoma came in second with $4 billion and Florida‘s tribal casinos were third, with $2 billion. After a weak 2013 in Wyoming, tribal casinos there were up 13%. Other fast-growing states were Alabama (up 12%) and South Dakota (up 11%). Not everybody out West prospered, as tribal casinos in Idaho were down 9%. To the east, New York‘s and Connecticut‘s were hurting, too, off 5% and 6% respectively.