Cincinnati Casino Name Change

Posted By admin On 03/04/22

CINCINNATI -- Jack Entertainment will sell Jack Cincinnati Casino and Turfway park for $780 million pending approval, the company announced Friday.

CINCINNATI WKRC - Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati is changing its name to Jack Cincinnati Casino. It's an effort by Rock Gaming to rebrand it and its Ohio and Detroit properties, according to a. With last December’s opening of MGM National Harbor, the era of casino-building in this region—which started in 2009 when table games were approved for Charles Town, West Virginia, and ramped up in 2010 when Maryland approved six casinos throughout the state—is finally complete. CINCINNATI - It won’t be just the name that changes when Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati becomes Jack Cincinnati Casino in June. Operators will invest in new slot-machine products and may expand the. The two-story casino is 100,000 square feet (9,300 m 2) and has 2,000 slot machines, 85 table games and a 31-table World Series of Poker room. It is located on a 23-acre (9.3 ha) site on the northeast side of Downtown Cincinnati. Lucky's, Cincinnati Food Hall, Starbucks, and Prism are located inside the facility.

Hard Rock International and VICI Properties hope to complete the acquisition by year end. The deal would result in a third name change for Cincinnati's top-ranked largest casino property, which averaged nearly $17 million in monthly gaming revenue in 2018.
The property opened as a Horseshoe Casino in 2013 with about 1,700 employees. For the last 18 months, General Manager Chad Barnhill said the property has been operating with a staff of 'just under 1,000.'

Barnhill expects to continue working for Hard Rock International along with the rest of his team.

'Nothing changes,' Barnill said. 'All of our union agreements carry over with Hard Rock. Their seniority carries over. And nothing but upside with the Hard Rock brand coming in and what that means to increased visitation.'

The proposed sale ends months of speculation about a potential sale of the 22-acre property with 100,000 square feet of gaming space and 33,000 square feet of banquet and event space. Barnhill said employees are already speculating about improvements that Hard Rock might bring to Cincinnati.

'When is the hotel being built and when is the Hard Rock Cafe going into place? Those are the two questions that everybody's asked and I wish I had answers for it but not yet,' Barnhill said.

Jack Entertainment CEO Matt Cullen said he expects Hard Rock to 'get more into the entertainment aspect' of the Cincinnati property. He also expects improvements to Turfway Park. The Florence horse racing track has been exploring a potential investment in historical horse racing, which allows gamblers to bet on past races on a machine that's similar to playing slots, Cullen added.

Hard Rock declined to comment beyond its press release, which says improvements to the Cincinnati-area properties will be announced later this year.

“Hard Rock has been the number one operator in Ohio since opening in the greater Cleveland market in 2013,” said Jim Allen, chairman and CEO of Hard Rock International, in a press release. “And now, we look forward to introducing our unique brand of casino entertainment to Cincinnati.”

For Cullen, the deal completes more than a decade of work. As a principal in Rock Ventures LLC, a casino investment company founded by Detroit billionaire Dan Gilbert, Cullen was deeply involved the campaign to legalize gambling in Ohio. He oversaw development and construction of Downtown's casino.

'I feel really good about how that project came out,' Cullen said Friday. 'We're really selling it at the peak of the market.'

Cullen said the Cincinnati sale might be the last for Gilbert's casino enterprise, which agreed to sell Detroit's Greektown Casino-Hotel for $1 billion in November. Cullen said Rock Ventures might sell real estate assets in Northeast Ohio but it will continue to operate the Jack Casino and Jack Thistledown Racino.

'Cleveland is not for sale,' he said.

In an interview last fall, Macquarie Capital analyst Chad Beynon predicted a sale would have little impact on local jobs and might be good for gamblers - if the buyer was a national company with a solid loyalty rewards program. He also expected there would be lots of interest in the Cincinnati property.

“Ohio’s had one of the best gaming growth rates in the country over the past couple years,” Beynon said. “It still looks like it’s a growing market, certainly not mature.”

A promotional video for the Jack brand describes the name as reminiscent of “that friend that got you to do things you knew you probably shouldn’t do.”

The Horsesheo Casino Cincinnati is due to close on June 6 for 40 hours. When it reopens, the casino is going to have a new name: Jack Cincinnati Casino. The new branding must pass regulatory protocols, though this is expected to be a formality.

The Jack Casino Cincinnati is part of a wider rebranding by owner Dan Gilbert, who also owns Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Dan Gilbert’s gaming company has been named Rock Gaming, but it is changing its name to Jack Entertainment.

Jack Entertainment’s Rebranding

Jack Entertainment is undergoing a $40 million company-wide rebranding effort. The Horseshoe Cleveland, the ThistleDown Racino, and the Greektown Casino in Detroit have changed their names in the recent past.

The casino’s parking structure will be closed to the public during the 40-hour hiatus, too. Hamilton County officials can come and go to that parking garage, but no one else will be allowed access. These officials must be credentialed and have a parking pass.

Cincinnati Casino Closure

The downtown Cincinnati casino closes at 11:59:59 on June 6. The reopening is planned for 4 pm on June 8, with the parking space opening for business on June 8. Drivers on Interstate 71 already have had a glimpse of the new JACK brand, because the the casino’s 80-foot marquee along I-71 has been changed.

Changing the name from “Horseshoe” to “Jack” requires a process, because all the branding information on the inside of the casino is going to need to be resurfaced. In many cases, this only means removing a sign. In other cases, it requires paining over previous logos. External signage must be changed, too.

How the Rebranding Will Happen

On the inside, virtual every piece of gaming equipment bears the Horseshoe Casino logo. This include slot machines and gaming tables. It also includes hand-held gaming equipment, such as playing cards and dice.

Gaming regulators are set to inspect the entire Jack Casino operation. New playing cards and dice must be inspected, to see if they comply with Ohio gaming regulations.

Dan Gilbert’s Gaming Empire

Dan Gilbert, a native of Detroit, bought out his partner in the Ohio operations, Caesars Entertainment, in 2015. The two entered a partnership in 2009, after Dan Gilbert and Caesars successfully campaigned for Ohio’s approval for new casinos.

Because the casinos in Cincinnati and Cleveland would be competing against an already-successful brand in Penn National Gaming, it was decided that Caesars Entertainment would lend one of its famous property names, Harrah’s, to the new casinos.

Bought Out Caesars Entertainment’s Role

Casino

Those names served their purpose at the time, but Dan Gilbert and Caesars Entertainment found 2015 as a good time to go their separate ways. Caesars Entertainment entered what appears to be a long bankruptcy battle in January 2015, while Caesars has lightened its operations in certain cities (Tunica, Atlantic City) in lieu of the coming bankruptcy.

About Dan Gilbert

Dan Gilbert’s parents worked as Century 21 realtors and he worked with them while still in college, attaining his real estate license. Once he graduated, Dan Gilbert founded Rock Financial in 1985, alongside his brother, Gary, a realtor named Ron Berman, and friend Lindsay Gross. Gilbert realized the real money was not in selling real estate, but in originating mortgage loans. This became the focus of Rock Financial, which proved to be a huge success.

In 2000, the software company, Intuit, purchased Rock Financial. Intuit renamed the business Quicken Loans, but left Dan Gilbert in charge as CEO. This became one of the biggest online business in the 2000s, eventually making Dan Gilbert a billionaire. He used the capital to purchase the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is how most Americans know the businessman.

Cincinnati Casino Name Change Request

The Decision and The Letter

Dan Gilbert is probably most famous for writing “The Letter”, a defiant press release (or polemic) against Lebron James, after Lebron left the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat. In the letter, Dan Gilbert claimed the Cavaliers would win an NBA title before James and the Miami Heat ever did. Two years later, Lebron James and the Heat won the first of two back-to-back titles.

Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Name Change

In four years in Miami, Lebron James made the finals all four years. The Cavs languished at the bottom of the NBA’s standings, though they received the 1st pick in the NBA Draft an unlikely three out of four years. It was a big surprise to many that Lebron James, after his contract with Miami ended, chose to return to Cleveland to try to help the Cavaliers win a world title. Dan Gilbert appears to have repaired his relationship with his star player, though it likely won’t last, unless the Cavaliers win an NBA title — and soon.

Cincinnati Casino Name Change Fee

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