Two Oklahoma tribes, the Shawnee and Chickasaw Nation, are working together to try to put an off reservation casino within the state. Right now they are concentrating on the small town of Guymon in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
Their plans call for spending $25 million on the Golden Mesa Casino, which would be managed by Global Gaming Solutions, a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation.
According to the Chickasaw Nation’s Facebook page, “Before we begin to build the facility we must go through the approval process which consists of several stages. We are currently at the approval stage and hope to move forward with our plans.”
An act of Congress recognized the Shawnee in 2000. That law gave it the right to acquire land to build a casino in any state. But when the tribe created a controversy by attempting to build within the city limits of Oklahoma City, Congress amended the law to require the tribe to meet the requirements of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). The Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the tribe’s application to put the land in Oklahoma City into trust, saying that it couldn’t show a historical connection to the land, which is nearly 200 miles from its Miami, Oklahoma headquarters.
Guymon, which is 400 miles from Miami, is seen as having similar problems.
