The area has also seen a net increase of 40 businesses.Īt Ding Ho, a Cantonese restaurant on Phillipi Road just north of the casino, owner Stephen Yee credits the casino with a 10 percent boost in his business. In the meantime, another company plans to build a hotel nearby, with groundbreaking next spring.Īccording to Census Data, the area around the casino has seen a 9 percent increase in jobs - many of which come from the casino itself, but not all. Sinopoli says that’s still a possibility, which would entice out of town visitors to stay longer and spend more money. When Penn National Gaming, which also operates casinos in Toledo, Dayton and around the country, opened the Hollywood, it talked of a hotel on the site.

The casino attracts about 3 million visitors a year. WOSU Residents of the West Side say the Hollywood Casino has not brought as many jobs or businesses as promised.

So just that alone is quite the revitalization when you consider it was a brownfield site that’s been remediated, and you went from zero jobs to a thousand.' We now have a thousand employees that work here. 'When we took over this site, there were zero jobs here. You used to have thousands of jobs here,' Sinopoli says. “What we are sitting on here is the old site. It took the place of the Delphi auto parts plant, which closed in 2007, and now general manager Himbert Sinopoli says he’s looking to fill 80 more open positions. That was a very sad occurrence for me because I remember that as a kid growing up.'Īround the corner from Westland Mall, more than 900 people work inside the Hollywood Casino. 'I mean, it broke my heart when the mall closed, when Sears finally closed down. “I don’t think it had the desired effect that we all thought it was going to have, about rejuvenating the West Side,' Gillis says. When he drives to the shiny-new casino, he still sees signs of struggle on West Broad street, like the deserted Westland Mall. Gillis says he has gambled here for about two years. While some improvements did happen on West Broad Street since then, many residents say they’re still waiting for more. When the Hollywood Casino opened on the West Side in October 2012, officials hoped it would bring new jobs and businesses to the depressed neighborhood. This fall marks the fifth anniversary of the birth of legal gambling in Columbus. 'I got about $600, so I did pretty well.' “I had a couple of good hands last week,' Gillis says. The West Side resident visits the casino, in his words, “more than he should.” But the week before, it paid off. One Monday morning, the slot machines at the Hollywood Casino have already attracted a few gamblers to try their luck.

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