The Pawnee Nation plans to build a casino hotel resort five miles south of Arkansas City that will include 150 rooms and a golf course next to the old Chilocco Indian School. The casino will offer 1,200 electronic gambling machines, class 3 gaming that will include roulette tables and other table games, however, players will not be allowed to bet against the house.
The construction of the facility could start within weeks but the tribe awaits federal and state approval. The objective is to inaugurate the casino hotel resort in spring of 2006. Voters in Oklahoma approved last year an act that allows new types of gambling machines as well as card games.
The tribe signed a contract for three gaming operations, in it, Lakes Entertainment would develop and manage the Chilocco casino and a much smaller one in what is now a gas station owned by the tribe about nine miles south of Pawnee, Okla. In addition, the tribe would install 65 machines in a convenience store in Pawnee.
The casino hotel resort will draw customers from Southern Kansas, which has no casinos and according to gaming experts, northern Oklahoma is a relatively untapped casino breeding ground.
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