ThistleDown to increase purses by 5 percent

ThistleDown racetrack outside of Cleveland will raise purses 5 percent across the board beginning Sept. 1, the track and casino announced Wednesday.

This is the second time the track has raised purses during the 2014 racing season. With the latest increase, purses will average $110,000 a day, the track said. Purses at the track are heavily subsidized by slot-machine revenues from an adjacent casino.

The ThistleDown announcement comes one day after Belterra Park in Cincinnati announced it was cutting purses 20 percent across the board because slot-machine revenues had not met expectations.

While daily net revenue per machine at Belterra in July was approximately $95, according to Ohio Lottery records, daily net revenue per machine at ThistleDown in the same month was $303. The Belterra figure is one of the lowest among casinos in the U.S.