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In and of itself, April 2023 was nothing remarkable for Ohio’s four casinos. However, the returns for the month for the four Class III gaming facilities were more than good enough to keep this year as a whole looking quite special.
April’s $86.4 million in revenue keeps 2023 on a path to being the most lucrative year ever for Ohio casinos. The state’s licensed sportsbooks also had some mixed results during the month, with a decline being tempered by some consistent performances.
Ohio casinos record third-best April
The total of $86.4 million from April ranks behind the figures for the same month in both 2021 and 2022. It’s also a significant 7.5% drop from the Ohio casino revenue total for March of this year. The drop from April 2022 to April 2023 was around 6.9%.
However, there is a positive side to this gaming chip. The 2023 version is ahead of all other April iterations other than 2021 and 2022 for revenue since casino gaming began in Ohio in May 2012, for one thing.
Additionally, the decline wasn’t sufficient to deter the record pace for 2023 overall. Compared to the first four months of 2022, for example, casino revenue is up 3.4%.
This year might prove to be the greatest year the casinos have ever had but the margin could be quite narrow, by less than five percentage points. Regardless, an improvement of a few percentage points is preferential to any decline for the properties.
Ohio’s legal sportsbooks will set a record this year regardless of how they perform. They just started taking bets in the state in January, making this their inaugural year. This first year is looking stronger for some of those licensees than others.
Ohio sportsbooks keep up enviable win rate
In March, Ohio’s licensed sportsbooks won 13.4% of the money that residents and visitors wagered via their apps, counters, and kiosks. That amounted to a strong $99.1 million in win, which April failed to keep pace with at $68.7 million. Again, though, there’s good news.
That percentage of dollars won held steady in April, as the same books won 13.1% of the $520.5 million that bettors put down. A good month for US sportsbooks in terms of their win rate is 10% so Ohio’s sports betting channels are performing quite well.
April showed some consistency in another way. According to the Ohio Casino Control Commission, DraftKings and FanDuel dominated online wagering on sports in Ohio for the fourth consecutive month.
Although their market share has declined over the course of the four months, those two apps have combined for at least two-thirds of the dollars wagered online in Ohio each month since January.
The contributions of all the licensed books added $63.7 million to the taxable revenue pot for April, meaning the state saw over $150.1 million in such funds. That also keeps the state on pace to receive a record amount of tax revenue from gaming in 2023.
Not too shabby, April, not too shabby.
