Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City): Oklahoma cashes in on Texas Hold 'Em craze

Card game gambling interest has grown faster than state officials expected since a new law allowed tribal casinos to compact with the state, Finance Director Scott Meacham said Wednesday.

With the Texas Hold 'Em card game craze that's gripped the nation, it's been fortuitous for us, Meacham said. Our estimates have been kind of low.

The state law, passed in November, allows tribes to form compacts with the state allowing card games at Indian casinos as long as the games are not banked by the house. That means the casino provides structure for players to compete against each other, and the casino can collect a fee for holding the games, but the casino cannot directly bank or fund the games.

Casinos are allowed to collect fees up to 10 percent of each game. The casino also collects for the state 10 percent of each pot, which is earmarked for education.

The state was expecting more than $7 million this fiscal year, but Meacham expects that to increase before the fiscal year ends June 30. Likewise, next fiscal year's estimates of more than $50 million are likely to be low, too, he said.

We think those estimates are low because a lot more tribes came online than we were projecting. We thought by July 1 we'd have 10 tribes and 15 by June the next year. We've already got 14 tribes that have submitted their compacts, he said.

The state's current staff of five employees to handle related work will have to be adjusted accordingly, he said.

The first four compacts under the new law were cleared for action after being entered in the Federal Register Jan. 27. Meacham said the Cherokee Nation and Absentee Shawnee Tribe began holding card games that same day.

Attorney Kirk Kickingbird, who represents several tribes in Oklahoma, said some compacts had been prepared months earlier but were delayed federal clearance by the holidays.

We actually thought it would move a little more quickly, Kickingbird said.

He and attorney William Norman represent the Absentee Shawnee, Comanche, Cherokee and Creek tribes through the Hobbs Straus Dean & Walker law firm, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and Oregon.

Jim Druck said the Lucky Star Casino near El Reno is planning a 25,000-square-foot expansion to its existing 40,000-square-foot building as soon as the federal government clears the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes' compact in March. Druck is the chief executive of Bloomington, Minn.-based Southwest Casino and Hotel Corp., which manages Lucky Star.

We are training for our table games, and we have an expansion plan of pretty good magnitude, Druck said. I can tell you it's a nice increase. - I think we're looking in the neighborhood of 15-20 blackjack tables and 10 poker tables.

Norman said tribal relationships with the state would be complicated by the amount of information required to be shared about casino processes. The federal government and tribal gaming commissions are expected to conduct more frequent and thorough audits.

It's going to be an opportunity for the tribes to shore up their infrastructure and increase the revenues that are going to the programs that are dependent on these dollars, Norman said.

Meacham said an external auditor would review the records each year to ensure the state is getting its fair share. The state will track only net profits from card table games, so it's impossible to say how many poker or blackjack games are being run, he said.