Cherokees to set 3rd casino at state border

$170 million Oklahoma development to start soon

NWA Media/Michael Woods --09/18/2014-- w @NWAMICHAELW... The main casino at the Cherokee Casino Hotel in West Siloam Springs Thursday afternoon.
NWA Media/Michael Woods --09/18/2014-- w @NWAMICHAELW... The main casino at the Cherokee Casino Hotel in West Siloam Springs Thursday afternoon.

A Cherokee Nation-owned casino-hotel will be part of a $170 million retail development soon to begin in Tahlequah, Okla.

It joins a Cherokee Nation casino being built in Roland, Okla. When both are complete, the number of Cherokee Nation casino-hotels along the Arkansas border will rise to three, more than any other American Indian tribe.

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A map showing the location of casinos near Northwest Arkansas.

In West Siloam Springs, Okla., the tribe operates Cherokee Casino & Hotel, which was upgraded in 2010 and now has 1,500 electronic games, table games and a 140-room hotel.

In Roland, near Fort Smith, the Cherokee Nation is building a six-story, 120-room hotel and gambling operation with 850 electronic games as well as table games, at a location just off Interstate 40. When opened, it's expected to employ about 400.

In addition to a casino-hotel, the Cherokee Springs Plaza in Tahlequah will feature 1.3 million square feet of mixed-use space, including retail, dining and entertainment. It will sit next to the Cherokee Springs Golf Course, which the tribe purchased in 2012.

When the Tahlequah casino-hotel is complete, the tribe's old casino in that town will be used as a Cherokee language immersion school. The new Tahlequah facility will be similar to the tribe's hotel in West Siloam Springs.

The three-phase project is expected to take five years to complete. The phases are installation of utilities and roads; construction of the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah, which includes a resort hotel, convention center and new golf clubhouse; and the addition of a strip of retail shops along Grand Boulevard.

Cherokee Nation Entertainment is the wholly owned gambling, hospitality, retail and tourism arm of the Cherokee Nation. It runs the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa; seven Cherokee Casinos, including a horse-racing track; four other hotels; two golf courses; and retail outlets. It employs about 3,700 people across all of its operations.

In fiscal year 2013, Cherokee Nation Entertainment reported revenue of $549.7 million.

Cherokee Nation Chief Bill John Baker said the Tahlequah project will be a full-service resort, with convention facilities and other amenities combined with the relocated and modernized casino and the hotel. Tahlequah is the capital of the Cherokee Nation and its cultural offerings, including several museums and a cultural center, already are a tourist draw.

Baker said Arkansas visitors are key customer base for the Cherokee's casino operations and will remain so in the future.

Nationwide, nongambling revenue at tribal casinos was up nearly 3 percent to about $3.4 billion in 2012, the second-consecutive year for growth, according to Casino City's Indian Gaming Industry Report. Oklahoma's tribal casinos saw nongambling revenue rise to $510 million, a 3.4 percent increase when compared with 2011. Nongambling revenue for the state has grown since 2009.

In the United States, revenue at Indian-owned casinos rose 2 percent in 2012 to $28.1 billion, an all-time high. Oklahoma came in seventh nationally in revenue growth among Indian casinos, up 6.6 percent to $3.7 billion in 2012. The state ranked second by total revenue behind California, which took in $6.96 billion in 2012.

Arkansas has no tribal-owned gambling, but betting is allowed on greyhound races at Southland Park in West Memphis and thoroughbred races at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. State law allows gambling on electronic devices at the racetracks that are similar to devices offered at out-of-state casinos.

Five of Oklahoma's Indian tribes, including the Cherokee Nation, already have large-scale casino operations in the vicinity of the Arkansas state line. Many of the facilities have been upgraded in recent years, adding new or expanded casino floors and nongambling amenities such as hotels, restaurants and spas.

The Choctaw Nation has a presence along the Arkansas border near Fort Smith. It expanded and enhanced the gambling floor at its Pocola, Okla., casino on Interstate 540 in 2012 and added a 118-room hotel in 2013. It has 2,200 slot games, a 12-table gambling pit and a high-limit area and added a new off-track betting room earlier this year.

In April, construction began on Cherokee Casino & Hotel in Roland, just west of Fort Smith. The new facility will cost $80 million and will employ more than 400 workers. It replaces the tribe's 50,000-square-foot Cherokee Casino Roland operation, which employs 320. The Roland operation is where the tribe opened its first Cherokee Nation Bingo Outpost in 1990.

Plans call for the Roland casino to be ready by the end of May, with the hotel opening by the end of September 2015. Once the new facility is completed, the old casino will be demolished.

Charles Garrett, executive vice president of Cherokee Nation Businesses, said the Cherokee Springs Plaza project in Tahlequah is one of several moves made by tribal leadership to further goals of diversified economic development and job creation.

Cherokee Nation Businesses serves as the holding company for all of the Cherokee Nation's for-profit entities, according to the nation's website. Cherokee Nation Businesses and its subsidiaries include companies across multiple sectors, including information services, defense, manufacturing, and telecommunications. It employs more than 9,000 people and posted more than $781.9 million in revenue in 2013.

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