Five of Oklahoma’s Indian tribes attract players from Arkansas with Las Vegas-style casinos located close to the state line. Several of them offer new or renovated casinos, plus hotels, restaurants, spas and other amenities—whereas in Arkansas, state law only allows gambling on electronic devices at the greyhound racetrack Southland Park in West Memphis and the horse racetrack Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. As a result, it’s no wonder Arkansans don’t mind the short trip to Oklahoma’s tribal casinos.
Kelly Way, associate professor of hospitality innovation at the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences in Fayetteville, Arkansas, said by adding hotels at their properties, tribes are luring gamblers and tourists. She noted the hotels and other amenities make the operations more attractive and bring diverse income to the tribe—but the bottom line is the hotels support the casinos. “Hotels are great, but the money is in the casino. The odds are with the house,” Way said.
Steve Bourie, author of the American Casino Guide and owner of americancasinoguide.com noted players benefit from local competition in terms of better promotional offers, food prices and hotel room rates. He added hotels also benefit the casinos because studies show players tend to gamble more and spend more in general when they stay at a property.
One of the newest Oklahoma tribal hotels, located minutes from Fort Smith, Arkansas, is the 170,000 square foot, six-story Cherokee Casino & Hotel Roland, featuring 120 rooms including six executive suites and a “chief” suite, all decorated with prints and original artwork by Cherokee artists. Cherokee Casino and Hotel Roland General Manager Chad McReynolds said the hotel has been at capacity since it began taking reservations. “It’s a great problem to have,” he said. The hotel created 300 new jobs, he added.
The Roland facility is one of seven Cherokee casinos owned by Cherokee Nation Entertainment, the wholly owned gambling, hospitality, retail and tourism arm of the Cherokee Nation, which also operates the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa plus four other hotels, two golf courses and retail outlets. It employs about 3,800 people.
Also across the state line from Fort Smith is the Choctaw Nation’s Choctaw Casino Hotel in Pocola, Oklahoma. Two years ago the tribe expanded and renovated the gaming floor and added a six-story, 118-room hotel. Director of Marketing Leslie Lumley said, “When new lodging and entertainment options come to the Fort Smith area, it helps drive economic development to the region and makes us more attractive to travelers. Our recent multi-million dollar hotel renovation and the addition of the new Cherokee facility helps us remain competitive with other gaming destinations.”
Throughout Oklahoma, tribal-owned casinos generated $3.7 billion in revenue in 2013, second to California’s $7 billion, according to Casino City’s Indian Gaming Industry Report. Taken together, the two states accounted for about 40 percent of all revenue at tribal casinos in the U.S. that year. Oklahoma’s non-gambling revenue rose 14 percent to $580.5 million in 2013 and for the U.S. as a whole non-gambling revenue rose 5 percent to $3.6 billion. Casino City’s Indian Gaming Industry Report noted non-gambling revenue increases have surpassed gambling revenue in 10 of the past 13 years.
