All You Need To Gamble At Hollywood Casino Columbus Is Your ID And Your Smartphone

Written By Derek Helling on October 21, 2021 - Last Updated on August 13, 2024
Ohio casino touchless gaming

Planning on hitting up the slots or table games at Hollywood Casino Columbus soon? You can leave your physical wallet — save for your ID — at home. The casino is now taking part in a new cashless gambling option.

Through Penn National Gaming‘s nascent program, all you need to put down your bets on your favorite slot game or blackjack hand is your smartphone. The app is a lot more than just another electronic wallet, though.

Cashless gambling debuts in Ohio

Hollywood in Columbus is the first online casino in Ohio to offer such an amenity. Penn National rolled the program out first at multiple properties in Pennsylvania. Essentially, it adds a “mywallet” function to the existing mychoice app.

If you’re familiar with Apple Wallet or PayPal, you’ll quickly recognize the mywallet section. It allows you to save various payment methods and then use them at your discretion while at the casino. You can purchase chips for table games or load a slot machine with the value of your choice for play using only the app, no cash or physical credit/debit cards are required.

According to WBNS, Penn National plans to roll out the technology for use at its other Ohio properties by the end of the month as well. Those are:

  • Hollywood Casino Dayton Raceway
  • Hollywood Casino Toledo

For a limited time, Penn National is waiving transaction fees to let patrons try the new function.

While this means you can save room in your pockets when you visit the casino, there are other benefits. The least of those is certainly not reducing the number of touchpoints necessary in gambling.

Instant rewards usage, contact reduction through the app

Penn National property frequenters are familiar with the mychoice app already. A big reason for that is the app is a convenient way to stay on top of earned rewards. Those build toward perks like bonus play and comped dining.

The integration of mywallet into the app means you can instantly cash out at a slot machine or gaming table and immediately see your tier status and rewards update. From there, you can use the perks you’ve earned as you like.

Being able to cash out winnings right into the app also reduces contact between yourself and casino staff/surfaces. In addition, you no longer have to touch slot machines to fund your plays or exchange currency to buy chips.

Gambling still has work to do before it’s completely contactless, as chips are still vital to many table games. Additionally, science has not yet derived a method of playing a slot game without you triggering the mechanism by using your hand.

Now that cashless gambling is a growing option, perhaps the future will someday see completely contactless gaming. Until then, the ability to fund all your plays using nothing but an app on your phone is a step in the right direction.

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Derek Helling

Derek Helling is a lead writer for PlayUSA and the manager of BetHer. He is a 2013 graduate of the University of Iowa and covers the intersections of sports with business and the law.

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