Chickasaw Nation to Open Lakecrest Casino Hotel in Oklahoma
The Chickasaw Nation testament surface its newest gambling casino hotel tomorrow, Apr 24.
Continuing its expanding upon spree inward Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation, already ane of the nation’s largest gaming tribes with 16 casinos and deuce-ace traveling block gaming plazas, the federally recognized plans to undecided its 17th gambling casino inwards the Sooner State on Wednesday.
Lakecrest Casino & Hotel is placed inward Ardmore just now E of Interstate 35 along US Highway 70.
The 70,000-square-foot casino base will in the first place cater to slots players, as Lakecrest testament house to a greater extent than 1,000 of the newest terminals. A small parcelling of tabular array games — viii to live exact — testament tender cosh and Ultimate TX Hold’em, a variant of the pop stove poker gamey that’s played against the house.
As sports betting remains prohibited inward Oklahoma, no sportsbook testament be at Lakecrest.
Soft Opening Only
A spokesperson for the federation of tribes said tomorrow’s commencement ceremony is a diffused opening. group A grand curtain raising and typewriter ribbon lancinating with tribal officials and grand guests testament add up at a later date.
Along with the gambling casino space, Lakecrest testament lineament an attached hotel with 89 guestrooms and suites, a resort-style outdoor pool, and group discussion facilities. group A grill, full-service bar, and coffee discern are also forthcoming.
Lakecrest will additionally amount with an RV park, including 20 lighted concrete slabs equipt with electrical hookups, Wi-Fi, and 24/7 security.
The Chickasaw Nation proclaimed the Lakecrest project in 2020 along with the tribe’s West Bay Casino Resort externalize overlooking Lake Texoma. western United States Bay opened last May and replaced the former Texoma State Lodge.
West Bay is nearly 30 miles east of where Lakecrest testament undecided tomorrow. No precise time for tomorrow’s curtain raising has in time been made public. The tribal interpreter said such flaccid openings are typically “fluid.”
Protecting Home Turf
Oklahoma’s gaming tribes rely intemperately on Texas, specifically the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Lobby efforts to legalize commercial message cassino gaming inwards the Lone Star State persist, with Las Vegas Sands billionaire Dr. Miriam Adelson and NBA Dallas Mavericks billionaire Gospel According to Mark Cuban aligning lowest year.
The odds, at least for now, of Lone-Star State welcoming commercial-grade casinos remain presumably long. But if Las Vegas-style casinos i daytime manage come up to Texas, the Chickasaws go on to storm upwards their front along Oklahoma’s southern butt to protect their economical interests.
The federation of tribes owns and operates what’s billed as the largest gambling casino inward the humanity — WinStar World Casino and Resort. The readiness inward Thackerville is just miles magnetic north of the TX border.
WinStar features niner gambling casino venues with distinguishable themes ranging from Beijing to Eternal City to Paris to New York. The composite collectively has over 10,000 slots and 100 tabular array games.
The Chickasaw Nation, as swell as several other prominent gaming tribes inwards Oklahoma, aren’t standing light as lobbyists paid for past Sands go on to render and win over gaming sustenance inward Austin.
During the 2022 state elections in Texas, the Chickasaws donated $744,000 to political campaigns. Of the money the tribe spent inward Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) got the lion’s deal at $300,000. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Saint Patrick received $95,000.
Abbott has been a resilient opposing of allowing casinos to amount to Texas, though he has more or less softened that stance inward recent years.