JACK Cleveland Casino Review: The Dealt Tables and the Rooms

JACK Cleveland Casino is a commercial casino in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County. Its gaming floor opened in 2012. It is one of only four addresses in Ohio where a live table is permitted.

The venue holds an Ohio Casino Control Commission casino licence. Ohio’s two licence classes are not a technicality: this one is why a dealer can stand at a table downtown.

A Dealt Table in Downtown Cleveland

JACK Cleveland Casino holds one of the state’s four casino licences, which makes it one of only four addresses in Ohio where a dealer runs a table. Blackjack, roulette, craps and poker are all permitted here in the dealt form. Every racino in northeast Ohio, and there are three within half an hour, is legally barred from offering the same thing.

The building is a landmark in its own right. It occupies the former Higbee’s department store on Public Square, which is why the floor plan is vertical and unusual for a casino, spread across levels instead of laid out on one open room.

Where It Sits Among the Northeast Ohio Venues

Cuyahoga County holds two gaming venues, and they are not equivalent. This one is the commercial casino. JACK Thistledown Racino, out at North Randall, holds a video lottery terminal licence and runs no dealt tables. MGM Northfield Park, in neighbouring Summit County, is also a racino.

So the practical map for a visitor is simple. For machines, take your pick across the region. For a dealer, downtown is the destination.

Ownership and Naming

The venue trades as JACK Cleveland Casino under JACK Entertainment. Published listings sometimes name an individual instead of a company in the owner field, which is a category error worth ignoring; the operating entity is the company.

Address, Rooms and Figures

The address is 1515 W 3rd St, Cleveland. Rooms are available on site. Gaming-floor figures come from the operator’s published material and change with the floor plan.

Nobody under 21 gets onto the floor, and the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline answers at any hour on 1-800-589-9966.

A Casino Inside a Department Store

The building matters here in a way it does not at most venues. JACK Cleveland Casino occupies the former Higbee’s store on Public Square, a downtown retail building, not a purpose-built casino, and the floor is arranged vertically across levels as a result.

That has a practical effect worth knowing before arriving. Games are distributed between floors, not laid out in one visible room, so finding a specific game means moving between levels instead of scanning across a single space. Visitors used to a floor plan they can survey from the door tend to find it disorienting on a first visit.

The location is the other half of the difference. Public Square is the middle of the downtown grid, so this is one of the few Ohio venues genuinely reachable without a car.

100,000 Square Feet, Spread Vertically

JACK Cleveland Casino covers 100,000 square feet, the same as Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati and, oddly, the same as the Mahoning Valley racino. The number understates the experience here, because the building was a department store and the floor runs across levels rather than one open room.

Area assumes a single plane. On Public Square it does not apply cleanly, and the practical measure is how much stair and escalator sits between two parts of the same floor.

Who Runs It and Who Owns It

JACK Entertainment runs the casino. VICI Properties owns the building, having acquired it along with the rest of a large portfolio. The operator is the party that holds the Ohio casino licence, which is the one that matters for what happens on the floor.