Casino Time

TOLEDO, Ohio (WUPW) - Toledo's Hollywood-themed casino will be built just off the I-75 Miami Street exit along the Maumee River on a piece of land that's in East Toledo, but right next to the Rossford city limits.

FOX Toledo News would love to show you an artist's rendering of what the casino will look like, but there isn't one yet. It's still in the design phase.

But depending on the speed of licensing and putting together the gaming commission to regulate the casinos, groundbreaking could begin as soon as July.

"We are hoping that some time this summer we can start to move earth," said Eric Schippers of Penn National Gaming.

If Penn National Gaming gets started that soon, they said Toledo's casino could be the first of the four Ohio casinos to open, which could be a real bonus for drawing attention and customers.

Here's what FOX Toledo does know about Toledo's casino. It'll be a one-story structure, about 200,000-square feet, with slots and table games, and probably a heated outdoor smoking area with some shelter (since Ohio law prohibits smoking inside).

The Hollywood-themed casino will have restaurants, but no hotel.

"It's important to us not to come in an cannibalize existing business," Schippers said. In fact, we want to be a catalyst, a magnet for additional growth of other businesses."

Schippers said that includes the new Huntington Center in Downtown Toledo. The casino will not have a huge entertainment space to compete with that, instead, the casino will have a smaller venue.

"We'll have a smaller entertainment venue where we'll have local acts, which will be great," he said. "One of your local acts is in American Idol. Who knows? Maybe there's an opportunity to have some synergies there. We want to be a good corporate citizen, not just for Toledo, but for Rossford and the region in general."

Toledo's casino construction is expected to put between 1,00-2,000 people to work.

"We hope that construction jobs will have major emphasis on local employment, as opposed to bringing people in from all around the country," said Toledo Councilman D. Michael Collins.

When construction's almost done, Penn National plans to hire 1,200 permanent casino employees with an average pay of $40,000.

"About 90-percent of those jobs are going to come from the local community," Schippers said.

The other 10-percent will be brought in from out-of-state will be mostly managers, people who need previous casino experience. But for local people who need to learn skills like how to deal blackjack, the casino will partner with schools, possibly Owens Community College, to provide training for the new workforce.

Casino jobs go beyond dealers and cocktail waitresses. They'll need security, people to maintain the slot machines, marketing staff, finance staff, a full I.T. staff, and folks to man the surveillance cameras.

Hiring for those positions are at least a year a way.

By mid-to-late 2012, Toledo is expected to have a new casino, open and ready to compete with the ones in Detroit and Windsor.

Toledo's casino will look like the Hollywood Indiana casino in Lawrenceburg, Ind. Lawrenceburg is across the state a few miles from Cincinnati.

Toledo's casino will have the same theme and similar style with high-technology in the games and the decor.

"It changes each and every time you come, because we have literally 300 plasma screen TVs that have a lot of content, video showing,' said Tony Rodio, manager of Hollywood Casino Indiana.

Penn National said patrons to Toledo's casino will see the same games, from slots, to blackjack, roulette and mini baccarat, even a poker room.

Lawrenceberg's had a riverboat casino for 10 years now. It was recently expanded and newly-remodeled, with a brand new upscale steakhouse.

"It's been a Godsend to everybody," said Lawrenceberg Mayor Bill Cunningham. "It's amazing what you can do with the money. State of the art parks, a community college, community centers, meeting centers, everything free, full time fire, full time E.M.S.we never had before. We built a new library."

Every graduating senior in Lawrenceburg who goes on to college get at least $1,600 a year to help pay for school. But before we get carried away counting our chips, for Lawrenceburg, the casino and attached hotel are the area's biggest employer, which won't be the case for the much bigger city of Toledo.

"Toledo is going to be much different than the Lawrenceburg experience," said Councilman Collins. "This is not going to be the economic foundation for the City of Toledo."

One big difference in Indiana, the casino money stays mostly in cities and counties right around their casinos. In Ohio, it'll be divided among all 88 counties.

"The casinos will be taxed at around 33-percent, with the money to be divided up among local communities," said Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

That's in addition to licensing fees of $50 million per casino, money that's supposed to be used by the state for job creation.

The city of Toledo and Lucas