by Steve Norton
CEO, Norton Management

Ohio doesn't need 11 racinos & casinos, expert says | cleveland.com

The first mistake made by the Ohio Legislature was approving the casinos for its major cities, rather than place them in the suburbs or rural areas nearby. The only existing city center casinos that are very successful are in Michigan, where there is no competition to downtown Detroit.

In St. Louis and Kansas City, the downtown casinos under perform several casinos in the surrounding communities. Traffic and costly parking are big deterrents, plus in most major cities, the large percentage of the population is outside the city proper.

In Philadelphia, only 50 thousand persons live in the city, with a metropolitan population of over 6 million. There the most successful casino, Parx, is north of the city, but two casinos were designated for downtown Philadelphia; where Sugar House is relatively successful, and the second casino not yet open. Other Philadelphia area casinos are in Chester and a limited license casino in Valley Forge, which could have been the areas largest casino, if not for the resort designationnthat limited their casino games to 50 tables and 600 slot machines.

Downtown New Orleans is more successful than neighboring riverboats, because of casino size restrictions on the riverboats; and the fact that New Orleans has substantial hotel accommodations downtown, plus unique support attractions in the Super Dome and the French Quarter.

In Ohio, even though the racetracks offer no table games, they are closer to the population and are more accessible.