Fittingly, Penn National Gaming chose Columbus Day to open its newest casino, in the Ohio city that bears the name of the man who didn’t quite discover America in 1492. With 3,000 slots and 100 tables, it’s loaded for bear. This will be the first instance of head-to-head competition between a full-fledged Buckeye State casino and a racino, what with Scioto Downs being just a titch down the road. MTR Gaming, which saw its other properties take a thumping from Horseshoe Cleveland Casino, particularly in table win.
According to Dr. David G. Schwartz, Scioto Downs’ VLT revenues were already toward the low end of what’s considered acceptable, so MTR’s got good cause to worry … although its winnings were the only ones of the state’s casinos to march steadily upward across the summer months, while Horseshoe Cleveland and Hollywood Casino Toledo experienced sequential declines. Against that must be set robust $246/machine/day slot winnings in Toledo and an outstanding $267/slot/day take in Cleveland.
Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli gives the palm for loosest slots to Hollywood Toledo, by a full two percentage points. Horseshoe grossed $21 million last month, against Toledo’s nearly $13 million. Just think: Caesars Entertainment effectively traded $20 million/month of wholly owned revenue in St. Louis for one-fifth of a comparable revenue stream in Cleveland. Business acumen, thy name is not Gary Loveman.
You could say Penn vs. MTR is a preliminary bout for 2014, when Pinnacle Entertainment‘s River Downs weighs in against Rock Gaming Caesars‘ in-progress 
Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati (left). Ditto a pair of dueling racinos (one owned by Penn) in the Dayton area. Then there’s next year’s peculiar slugging match, when Dan Gilbert and subordinate Loveman open a racino at Thistledown, in direct competition with Horseshoe Cleveland, in typical Caesars form. As for Penn, its Ohio expansion has cost 160 Indiana workers their jobs at affected Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg. We all feel for them but, from a Penn’s-eye view, they’re just roadkill on the expressway of massive revenue growth.
Meanwhile … back in Columbus, 12,000 customers — not the expected 20,000 — stormed the casino floor on opening day. If they needed extra incentive, Ann-Margret was on hand — which is a big upgrade from Toledo’s celebrity guest, 
Jamie Farr. Players who had luck on their side got a chance to become acquainted with the complicated formulae by which the City of Columbus taxes your jackpot. That’s nothing compared to the 33% haircut that Penn and Caesars are willing to take in return for having an exceptionally short-lived oligopoly on gambling, thanks to a horrendous deal they cut with Gov. “Casino John” Kasich (R, ). He took both companies to the cleaners, then hung them out to dry for good measure.
Already, analysts are wringing their hands about saturation and cannibalization. However, four casinos for an aggregate $1.5 billion in construction cost is good value for the dollar. You can’t build one bloody casino on the Strip for that kind of dough … although carpeted buffets appear to be a revolutionary concept in Ohio, which helps explain how they’ve saved a few pennies so far. City fathers haven’t banked any money from Columbus’ casino yet but they’ve basically spent it already, including a $15 million give-back to Penn, in the form of road improvements and environmental remediation. For over a year, lobbyists have been trying to manage expectations of what $400 million Hollywood Casino Columbus will do for the hard-hit west side of town. Salaries for dealers (projected at $35K-$40K, inclusive of tips) would in a best-case scenario be competitive with white-collar jobs in Las Vegas. However, permanent casino jobs are well short of the projected 15,000: a number that sold voters on the Penn-led push. As for ancillary economic development, it’s an open question of whether casinos act as a “force multiplier” in that regard, especially since Penn plans to keep the hotel business for itself. With the exceptions of Sunset Station and perhaps Green Valley Ranch, I’m hard-pressed to think of a Las Vegas locals casino that’s had an upscale ‘spillover’ effect into the surrounding area.
At the far fringes of the Penn empire, desperation characterizes the latest ad messaging for M Resort. If you’re heading south on I-15, expect to billboards proclaiming “Free buffet for slot players.” (And to think that the M buffet used to be one of the hottest tickets in town.) Still another hollers, “BUY GAS,” touting M as the last stop for affordable petrol this side of the California state line. Given how Penn is pitching its Vegas outpost, is it too soon to say “grind joint”?
Is gas more expensive in Primm?
Although I don’t propose to motor down to Primm and put Penn National’s thesis to the test, they would certainly have us *believe* that it is costlier there. And, given the paucity of filling stations along that stretch of I-15, I suspect they may be right.
Unfortunately M Resort’s location is just to far away for most locals (and tourists) to visit it to make M Resort profitable in the long run. M Resort has a cool design from the outside and a location closer to the Strip would have helped it tremendously.