New Ohio casino makes debut, takes aim at Detroit

JOHN SEEWER

Asso­ci­ated Press

TOLEDO — Devel­op­ers of Ohio’s newest casino think they’ll do just fine com­pet­ing for gam­blers with Detroit’s three casi­nos, even with­out the spas, hotels and big-name con­certs found just up the road.

Whether they’re suc­cess­ful might come down to the lit­tle things like a pro­hi­bi­tion on smok­ing on the casino floor, or the free garage parking.

The Hol­ly­wood Casino in Toledo made its debut Tues­day, draw­ing many peo­ple who for years have fre­quented the casi­nos just an hour drive to the north in Detroit. “I’m done going there,” said Jaycee Riley, of West Unity.

“I can’t believe how nice it is. It’s bet­ter than some of the casi­nos in Vegas. I doubt I’ll be going there any­more too,” she said while wait­ing with most of the casino’s first cus­tomers in a long line to join its rewards program.

The $320 mil­lion casino designed to look like a grand Art Deco movie house has a sin­gle floor devoted to slot machines, table games and restau­rants. It sits right along Inter­state 75 just south of down­town Toledo. Casino oper­a­tors think the ease of get­ting in and out along with the free park­ing will be a major draw.

The lack of a hotel shouldn’t hurt busi­ness because most cus­tomers will be trav­el­ing less than a half-hour, said Peter Car­lino, chair­man and chief exec­u­tive of Penn National Gam­ing Inc. “This is a big-time facil­ity by any mea­sure,” he said.

Penn National, based in Wyomiss­ing, Pa., has 27 casi­nos nation­wide. It’s also con­struct­ing a casino in Colum­bus that is expected to open in the fall.

Ohio’s first casino opened just two weeks ago to big crowds in down­town Cleve­land. Another casino is being built in Cincinnati.

All four casi­nos will draw away Ohio gam­blers who’ve been spend­ing an esti­mated $1 bil­lion each year to wager in neigh­bor­ing states. Gam­ing ana­lysts think Detroit’s casi­nos could lose up to 5 per­cent of their revenues.

On Tues­day, exec­u­tives from Penn National, local politi­cians and even Toledo native Jamie Farr, who played cross-dressing Cpl. Max Klinger on the TV series “M.A.S.H.,” offi­cially opened the casino as deal­ers, host­esses and a pair of show­girls cheered.

The casino then opened to the pub­lic about two hours ear­lier than expected. Most peo­ple headed to the slot machines, leav­ing the poker and black­jack tables empty, at least in the first few moments. By mid-afternoon, the casino’s park­ing garage was full and vis­i­tors were being directed to over­flow lots.

Per­haps the biggest dif­fer­ence between the casino in Toledo and the ones in Detroit is smok­ing. It’s banned in Ohio’s gam­bling halls, but not in Detroit.

Jake Mik­lo­j­cik, a gam­ing indus­try ana­lyst in Michi­gan, thinks the smok­ing issue will play to Detroit’s advan­tage and might lessen the amount of busi­ness it stands to lose to Ohio.

Car­lino, who was on hand for the open­ing in Toledo, said the absence of smok­ing will have an impact, but there is lit­tle the com­pany can do about that.

Among those who were first inside the casino on Tues­day, the lack of smoke seemed to be welcome.

“I love it,” said Terra Teague, of Detroit. “I can’t stand that cig­a­rette smoke.”

Audrey John­son, also of Detroit, said she didn’t know about the smok­ing ban before walk­ing into the casino.

“I’ll prob­a­bly come here a lot more often know­ing that,” she said.

Still, whether she skips the casi­nos in her home­town for the new one in Ohio will come down to what every gam­bler care about most.

“It depends on how the win­nings are,” she said.

Posted by AP News on May 29 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.