$200M Dayton Racino Project Moving Forward

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Dayton is one step closer to having its racino. Penn National Gaming Inc. (Nasdaq: PENN) announced on July 2 it wants to relocate Beulah Park in Columbus to Austintown and Raceway Park in Toledo to Dayton. It requested official permission of the Ohio State Racing Commission on June 30. It also formally filed with the Ohio Lottery Commission for Video Lottery Sales Agent licenses as part of its plan to open a $125 million racetrack and video lottery terminal facility in Dayton.

The Dayton facility will be called the Hollywood Slots at Dayton Raceway. It will be a harness racing track located on 125 acres of land, on the site of an abandoned Delphi Automotive plant near Wagner Ford and Needmore roads in North Dayton. Penn National originally announced its plans for the Delphi site in February 2011. The company hopes to receive approval and break ground on the $125 million complex by this fall.

The Austintown facility will be called Hollywood Slots at Dayton Raceway. It will be a thoroughbred track located on 184 acres in Austintown’s Centrepointe Business Park. Both facilities will have as many as 1,500 video lottery terminals and also feature restaurants, bars and other amenities. The projects are expected to generate 1,000 new direct and indirect jobs each and as many as 1,000 construction jobs per facility. An understanding between Penn National Gaming and the office of Ohio Gov. John Kasich also says the casino and racetrack operator has agreed to pay over time a $75 million relocation fee for each racetrack, in addition to the $50 million VLT license fee per track.

With the $125 million investment in land, construction and terminal purchases and the license fees, the price tag of the Dayton racino will reach $200 million. Tim Wilmott, president & COO of Penn National Gaming, said in a press release that “filing for VLT licenses and formally requesting that the Racing Commission approve our relocation plans is another major step forward for these two significant economic development projects.”

Image courtesy of https://www.pngaming.com.