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Dan Gilbert's gambling operations in Northeast Ohio — Jack Entertainment LLC's Jack Cleveland casino in downtown Cleveland and Jack Thistledown racino in North Randall — are working hard to regain ground lost to the regional leader of the pack, Hard Rock Cafe International Inc.'sHard Rock Rocksino in Northfield, the highest-grossing gaming hall in the state.

First, it was a $70 million makeover of the Thistledown operation that was completed last year — a new entrance, new games and restaurants, and a parking deck.

Now, it's Jack Cleveland's turn. Jack Entertainment is building, for an undisclosed cost, a gambling club for the next generation of gamblers, to be called Synergy Table Games, on the first floor of the three-floor operation within the Higbee Building on Public Square. Industry analysts lauded the move.

"It will be a major differentiator for the Jack," said Jay Masurekar, head of gaming, travel and Internet investment banking with KeyBanc Capital Markets, a unit of Cleveland's KeyCorp. "It's not your typical casino experience. They are trying to position (the downtown casino) for future growth."

Jack Entertainment has already installed a Synergy Table Games operation in its Greektown casino in Detroit and is installing one in its Jack Cincinnati casino. In an email, Mark Tricano, general manager of the Jack Cleveland, said the Synergy setup in Cleveland will be similar to what has been installed in Greektown, "providing an arena style adventure that fuses electronic table games, high-energy dealer entertainment, live DJs, pulsating lights and a giant video wall for a modernized approach to gaming."

The gaming installations were developed by Interblock USA, a subsidiary of Interblock d.d. of Slovenia, a developer of electronic table games.

Gamblers can play five electronic games and two live games. The electronic games are baccarat, blackjack, craps, keno and roulette. A live dealer will play baccarat and blackjack with as many as 28 players at video stations.

"It's like a lounge with gambling," said Frank Legato, editor of Global Gaming Business magazine, a Henderson, Nev., industry watcher. "They have a really good installation at Greektown. Casino operators have realized they have to start preparing for the next group of gamblers, millennials, as the older generation is dying."

Overall, spending on gaming in Northeast Ohio was up in 2017. The three facilities generated $556.4 million in revenue, a gain of $14.2 million, or 2.25%, over 2016. However, the pie is not evenly divided, and it's the Hard Rock that's outpacing the Jack operations.

The Hard Rock garnered 43% of the total revenue generated by the three, or $239.5 million, up 6% over 2016's $225.1 million. Jack Cleveland's revenue was $201.5 million, a 36.2% slice of the pie. That's down a little more than 1% from $203.6 million in 2016. Jack Thistledown had a 20.7% share, or $115.4 million, a gain of 1.7% over 2016's $113.5 million.

The Rocksino took over as market leader from Jack Cleveland in 2016, the Rocksino's second full year of operation. Jack Cleveland's revenue has declined steadily since its first full year of operation, 2014, when it had revenue of $220.4 million.

In July 2017, the Rocksino had its biggest month ever, when both Diana Ross and Englebert Humperdinck hit the stage of its Hard Rock Live concert hall, unique among the Northeast Ohio gaming operations. The Rocksino also was buoyed in 2017, Masurekar said, by the opening of the RockStop Gas & Wash, a gas station and car wash.

"That is doing extremely well," he said. "People are coming in droves to keep their car there, play games and then come out. It's really driving revenue there."

Legato said Hard Rock is one of the strongest competitors in the business.

"They have so much going for them with the live music and (rock 'n' roll) memorabilia," he said. "They really know how to exploit their Hard Rock brand."

While a car wash may attract people to a suburban destination with acres of parking like the Rocksino, both Masurekar and Legato believe the Synergy club concept makes sense for a casino like Jack Cleveland, because of its urban setting.

Since Synergy is based on table games, it can offer players an experience that neither the Rocksino nor the Thistledown racino can duplicate, since state law limits their gambling operations to slot machines. Masurekar also believes the club-within-a-casino setup can provide a growing downtown population — with many young people who have disposable incomes — a unique place to hang out.

A YouTube video posted by the Greektown casino shows a live dealer sitting at a small stage and playing electronically with as many as 108 players at gaming stations in the club who watch the action on a giant video screen. A live DJ and pumped-in music round out the experience.

Legato said gaming clubs where large numbers of patrons can play against a single dealer are one of the hottest trends in the industry. It's an Asian import that began with casinos in Macau, sometimes known as the Las Vegas of China, that is just beginning to catch on with U.S. casinos. In Macau, Legato said, some particularly hot games attracted too many players to fit around a traditional gaming table.

Beyond the potential to attract younger players, the concept should help U.S. casinos, Legato said, since it allows the casino operator to expand the number of players while staying within state imposed limits on the number of gaming tables they can offer, which for Jack Cleveland is 126. It also offers faster play, since the betting is handled electronically, so betting is faster and dealers or roulette wheel operators don't have to collect and count chips after each round of play.

"Millennials like fast play and social interaction," Legato said.

Both Masurekar and Legato also believe that Jack Entertainment, with two years of operation under its belt, is becoming a solid operator in the industry.

In February 2016, Rock Gaming LLC, now Jack Entertainment, took over operation of the three Ohio casinos, Greektown and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., from Caesar's Entertainment Corp., which had owned 20% of the operations. Not only was the ownership group new to casino operations, though it employed experienced casino managers, it had to build up its new "Jack" brand, as well as the urban casino concept.

"Jack is still building their market up, still building their brand," Legato said. "The urban concept is a good one, though it's not very old. Before this, casinos were worlds unto themselves. You had a hotel and a host of restaurants on the property. The idea was you kept everybody in there."

Urban casinos attract a different, less-suburban and less-affluent audience, and they rely on other hospitality operators nearby.

Masurekar also gives the Jack management high marks — tentatively.

"It takes a couple years to transition and understand what the patrons want," he said. "By the end of 2018, we'll be able to say if Jack is a good operator or not."