Scioto Downs: The other casino in town

The Other Paper
Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2012 1:05 pm | Updated: 1:30 pm, Thu May 10, 2012.
BY MELISSA DILLEY

What can gambling do for Columbus (or to Columbus, depending on who’s asking)?

That’s been the question on many minds since Ohio voters approved casinos in 2009.

Since then, the arguments have been many. It’s either going to be the spark that fires a much-needed development boom, or an anchor around civility’s neck, leading to broken dreams, lost nest eggs, social parasites and degradation.

Usually that talk revolves around the much publicized Hollywood Casino rising to existence on the city’s West Side. But that’s not the only game in town.

Long before the first busload of seniors pulls into the Hollywood Casino lot, many will have already been feeding coffee cans of silver into the slots at Scioto Downs Casino & Racetrack, which is scheduled to unveil its $150 million facelift in a month or so.

Murmurings already run rampant that the Hollywood Casino won’t generate enough gambling grannies to make good on the money promised to area schools and Nationwide Arena. Is this town really big enough for two casinos?

“We’re well aware of our competition,” said Troy Buswell, vice president and general manager of Scioto Downs, as he walked through the soon-to-reopen raceway, with its new 2,126 slot machines (or, as they call them, video lottery terminals, or VLTs) to Columbus’s South Side.

“I think we have a good product here and people will want to walk through our doors repeatedly,” he said.

Buswell pointed out the structured ceiling, colorful carpet, handcrafted lighting, marble flooring by the main bar and fully equipped bathrooms as he moved through the 90,000 square-foot building.

It’s all proof that MTR Gaming Group’s executives left no stone unturned in preparing to open Columbus’s first gaming area, complete with two restaurants and three bars, and soon compete against the equally deep-pocketed Penn National for Central Ohio’s wagered dollars.

“We have custom bases on all the VLTs to match the wood grain on them and the color on the walls matches the machines, too,” he said. “So guests know where aisles are, they can look to the custom ceiling (which is color-coded to the aisles below) and they’ll feel comfortable and know where they are. It’s all to enhance their experience.”

The machines, which are exactly like slots, but shouldn’t be referred to as such, Buswell said, range from a penny to $100 a play. And they all still have pull levers, even though they can be operated with a touch screen or key pad, too.

Buswell’s enthusiasm showed no sign that a judge still might delay the casino’s June opening. A group called Ohio Roundtable has filed suit to stop VLTs from being placed in racing venues. The case that is expected to be resolved by the end of this month has other Ohio race track owners looking to cross over into casinos at a standstill. MTR Gaming obviously feels the suit won’t halt its plans in Columbus, as the circular saws and nail guns are busily trying to meet next month’s scheduled opening. And regardless of the suit’s outcome, however, harness racing—the bread and butter of Scioto Downs for the past 50 years—will start today and will continue with live and simulcast racing through Sept. 8.

Meanwhile, construction will move forward on the first phase of the new facility until early June, when the grand entrance, gaming room, high-stakes area and bar, main bar and café will likely open.

The second phase of the project, which includes a high-end buffet, sports bar and more VLTs is expected to open in August.

MTR Gaming Group, based in Chester, W. Va., owns Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort and Presque Isle Downs & Casino.

It purchased Scioto Downs in 2003 and joined the Ohio movement to allow VLTs at race tracks in an attempt to create something referred to in the industry as racinos. No doubt, MTR had these renovations in mind from the time they signed the check, but Buswell, former slots operations director at Mountaineer, said it wasn’t until October that he and others formally planned out the space. In March, he joined Scioto Downs to work with Stacey Cahill, who will continue to serve as general manager of racing.

“This plan was made from scratch,” he said. “We took what we do effectively from other locations and used that, but this is all brand new with a lot of thought and detail behind it. We want to make this experience as positive and memorable as possible for our guests.”

His competition is saying the same thing.

“We think the kinds of amenities we’re going to be offering are going to be a very big draw,” said Penn National spokesman Bob Tenenbaum. “Among the restaurants is a high-end steak house, a very large buffet, a sports lounge, an entertainment venue which is going to feature local acts—the whole atmosphere is very high end.”

So are the two gaming giants looking over their shoulders at each other as they look to make their mark in Columbus?

Penn National owns 26 casinos in 19 states and by 2013, it will have infiltrated Ohio with two full-fledged casinos and two racinos.

The casino tycoon already runs Beulah Park in Grove City and Raceway Park in Toledo. To eliminate those as competition against its own Hollywood Casinos in Columbus and Toledo, it’s asking the state’s permission to move the horse racing facilities to Austintown and Dayton. If VLTs are approved, they’d become racinos just like Scioto Downs.

As part of the conditional pact that’s pending before the state, new gaming facilities within 50 miles of those locations in Austintown and Dayton are prohibited.

“The primary factor is that it simply does not make any business sense to operate a VLT facility and a full casino within just a couple of miles of each other,” Tenenbaum said. “We’d basically be cannibalizing our own business.

Unfortunately for Penn National, the proposed agreement doesn’t include Scioto Downs because it isn’t a new facility.

Despite the extreme measures to move the racetracks so as not to interfere with its own profits (it will cost Penn National $350 million to move and build Beulah and Raceway parks) Tenenbaum curiously admitted he doesn’t think Scioto Downs will cause major competition for the new West Side locale because it will reach a different audience than the Hollywood Casino.

Buswell agrees.

“We built this building to enhance the racing experience,” he said.

Take betting on a horse and letting the anxiety build as they round the track and compare that to sitting at a table, using strategy or relying on dumb luck to win a game of blackjack—anyone whose been to Mountaineer (which has all the elements of Hollywood Casino, Scioto Downs and more wrapped into one) knows the experiences are different.

Neither company could give exact demographics as to who might frequent each casino, but in general, races appeal to men, while Tenenbaum said research has shown the average casino dweller is a 53-year-old woman.

Apparently everyone wins. The annual tax revenue from these two facilities is well into the eight digits. The lottery commission will oversee all the slots and funnel that money into the state’s public school system. Possibilities for public infrastructure and new businesses to surround these casinos are endless.

To top it off, Scioto Downs will employ roughly 800, Hollywood Casino, about 2,000.

But beyond all that, Buswell thinks the glitzy and eccentric change of pace from the raceways of old will be an exiting addition to the area. “It has a raised entrance, high ceilings and all windows,” he said, coming to the piece de resistance of the tour: the entryway. “This had to be big, because we want guests to feel a sense of arrival when they walk into this building.”

It’s the departure, however, that can sting. They don’t call slots one-armed bandits for nothing.

Click here to view the story on theotherpaper.com.