CLEVELAND, Ohio — While legal sports betting is still a month away in Ohio, you won’t have to wait to see two of Cuyahoga County’s new sportsbooks.
The Las Vegas-style betting lounges at JACK Cleveland Casino and JACK Thistledown Racino opened Wednesday. While visitors can’t bet, they can enjoy theater-style seating and large video walls as they watch “The Game” between Ohio State and Michigan on Saturday.
JACK Entertainment will run two of the five sportsbooks in Cuyahoga County, with the others owned by the Browns, Cavs and Guardians. MGM Northfield Park will also have a sportsbook in northern Summit County.
The downtown casino and the racino in North Randall are designed to look and feel like a Las Vegas sportsbook, with their own unique features. There will be video walls, recliners and betting kiosks, along with table games and slot machines.
The spaces are built to take bets, but they’re also designed to create in-person excitement that doesn’t come with something like mobile betting.
In the casino, the sportsbook is near the Prospect Avenue entrance on the first floor. The 6,000 square-foot lounge will have two, 30-foot-wide video walls that can play two big games or multiple games at once. More TVs are scattered across the room.
It has five betting windows staffed by workers and 20 self-serve kiosks. The downtown sportsbook also has a table games pit, letting people play games like poker and roulette while staying in the sportsbook. The space will also have a video poker bar that seats 12.
The sportsbook at the JACK Thistledown Racino is open. No bets can be taken until Jan. 1, but the space is open for big games all holiday season long.Courtesy of JACK Entertainment
The Thistledown Racino sportsbook is slightly smaller at 4,200 square-feet. The space will have a 30-foot-wide video wall along with extra TVs placed across the room. It will also have an 86-foot-long ticker, where guests can see scores, betting odds and other information as it scrolls across the room.
Thistledown’s sportsbook will have slot machines, but no table games. Tables games are only allowed at the state’s four casinos.
JACK Entertainment also has a mobile sports betting license and has launched the BetJack app. The app is up and running, and users can place training bets, but no apps can take real bets until Jan. 1.
Ohio’s sports gambling law, passed in December, created three kinds of sports betting. Brick-and-mortar sportsbooks, online betting and sports gaming kiosks that can be found in bars and bowling alleys.
The state created 40 licenses for retail sportsbooks, but Cuyahoga County is limited to just five licenses.
Sean McDonnell covers business and consumer topics for cleveland.com. You can reach him at smcdonnell@cleveland.com Read previous stories at this link. Also:
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