Indian gaming has contributed $1 billion to education in Oklahoma over the last 10 years, according to the results of a new study, but the state is getting less of that money as gaming operations in the state change.
Tribal gaming contributed $4.2 billion to the state's economy in 2014, according to results of a study commissioned by the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association released Tuesday.
"I think a lot of Oklahomans don't know what kind of economic impact we have in the state," said Brian Foster, chairman of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association.
The study was based on data collected from the tribes and conducted by the Steven C. Agee Economic Research and Policy Institute at Oklahoma City University and KlasRobinson QED Inc.
The study found that tribes paid out more than $1.16 billion in wages and benefits to gaming employees in 2014. Tribal gaming operations employed about 37,000 people in the state last year.
Oklahoma collected $122 million in tribal gaming exclusivity fees in fiscal year 2014 under the state-tribal gaming compact, according to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. Those funds go to the Oklahoma's Education Reform Revolving Fund, the state's general revenue fund, as well as the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
For the first time, the fees paid in 2014 to the state by American Indian tribes for exclusive gaming rights declined from the previous year, according to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services' annual report on Indian gaming operations in the state.
The exclusivity fees the state received in 2014 were about $5.5 million less than the 2013 fiscal year, a roughly 4 percent decline. The decline was mostly because the tribes offered more of the types of games that don't require exclusivity fee payments to the state.
Tribes do not pay exclusivity fees on revenue from Class II gaming such as electronic bingo machines, which the state says have become more common in tribal gaming casinos.
Tribes also are diversifying their revenue streams by expanding dining options and entertainment at casinos.
Wallace Coffey, chairman of the Lawton-based Comanche Nation, said entertainment has driven revenues.
"I never dreamed how big a deal entertainment would be to us," Coffey said.
The tribe's Comanche Red River Casino in Devol, south of Lawton, is about 70 percent full on weeknights and booked solid most weekends, he said. The tribe is considering building a third hotel tower to keep up with demand at the casino, which draws much of its clientele from north Texas, Coffey said.
Like many Oklahoma tribes, the Comanche Nation has used proceeds from its four casinos in the state to expand services to its tribal members, as well as to expand efforts to preserve the tribe's language and cultural heritage, Coffey said.
(c)2015 The Oklahoman
