CLEVELAND — Ohio lost out on potentially tens of millions of dollars when Gov. Mike DeWine closed the state’s casinos, but the COVID-19 lockdown led many gamblers to the state lottery, which has seen an uptick is some of its more traditional games.
The closure of the state’s four casinos and seven racinos led gamblers to games such as Pick 3 [sales up 8 percent] and Pick 5 [up 11 percent] and the ubiquitous scratch-off tickets, have seen sales increase by 5.4 percent, or about $75 million, records show.
Increased sales in those traditional games off-set steep losses in other games, records released by the Ohio Lottery show.
In the wake of the lockdown, records overall show Ohio Lottery sales revenue was flat, down 1.4 percent, or about $40 million, from this time last year.
The decline, however, is largely due to deep drops in big payoff games like Powerball and MegaMillions, where interest is traditionally driven by bloated jackpots.
The Powerball game, for example, had a $768 million pot growing through late March last year. The MegaMillions game had three large jackpots grow over $375 million last year.
Sales for those two games alone account for a $138 million drop in lottery sales, when compared to last year’s numbers, according to data released by the Ohio Lottery.
The numbers are just a small part of an overall funding crisis in Ohio directly related to the COVID-19 lockdown and marked by DeWine’s announcement Tuesday that the state is projecting a budget reduction of $775 million.
Elsewhere, state universities are all reporting financial hardships, reporting losses of tens of millions of dollars. Many local and county governments, such as Akron and Cuyahoga County, have seen steep drops in tax revenue from lower employee wages and lost consumer sales and have previously announced worker furloughs to offset the losses.
For some, gambling on Ohio Lottery proved to be a diversion. Lottery sales were brisk inside Shaker Quality Foods where store owner Abe Hamed said he’s seen a 30 to 40 percent spike in new and former lottery customers.
“We see a lot of new faces, faces we haven't seen for a while, we probably lost those to the casinos,” Hamed said.
Those faces included lottery players, many unable to pull the lever of slot machines, snapping up scratch off tickets, or trying their hand at picking the right three digits in the Pick 3 games.
Some did it on a hope for riches, others out of boredom.
“Yeah, yeah no doubt. A lot of people are turning to this because cities are shut down,” said Tyrus Wilkins of Cleveland. “It’s almost like a depressed thing with jobs. So, everyone's scraping up their nickels and dimes and trying and hit big on the lotto.”
Sabrina Lewis, who tried her hand at Pick 5 and scratch offs, said her friends are counting down the days until the casinos reopen.
“Oh yeah, they bored,” she said. “You ain't got nothing else to do. I buy scratch offs because it's entertaining. It gives me something to do.”
The news is even bleaker at the casinos. Revenue from the casinos are spread out among counties and cities.
Ohio’s casinos were on a record-setting pace in early 2020, thanks to historically low unemployment and a strong economy that gave consumers more expendable income. February alone saw $75 million in reported revenue.
All bets were off when DeWine’s statewide closures came on March 13 freezing revenue at $30.9 million for the month. The state Casino Gaming Commission will likely announce zero revenue from April when it files its monthly report on Thursday, a spokeswoman said.
Based on last year’s numbers, the COVID-19 closures mean Ohio potentially lost out on more than $190 million in casino revenue.
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