Indian gaming helps drive rural Oklahoma economies, report finds
Rural areas in Oklahoma are getting major economic benefits from Indian gaming, with twothirds of the jobs created by the industry coming in rural areas, according to an economic impact report.
The report, for the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, was discussed Tuesday at the association’s annual conference in Oklahoma City. Other sessions covered human trafficking, cyber security, responsible gaming and tribal gaming compacts.
Oklahoma’s 131 Indian gaming establishments directly employ about 28,000 people, with twothirds of those jobs in rural areas, said the report’s authors, Jim Klas and Matthew Robinson. The study was done with Kyle Dean, director of the Center for Native American and Urban Studies at Oklahoma City University.
Almost 57 percent of employees at casinos and other gaming establishments were not members of tribes. Another 22 percent were members of that casino’s tribe, while the rest were members of other tribes.
Including indirect and induced employment — the additional jobs from related industries— Indian gaming employment in Oklahoma totals 42,700 jobs, the report said. Earnings from those jobs pumped $2.275 billion into the state’s economy.
“Oklahoma tribes and the state of Oklahoma have reasons to be extremely proud of what is happening here in the Indian gaming industry,” said Klas, with consulting firm KlasRobinson Q.E.D. “We work all over the country and in Canada, and every tribe and every state has reason to be proud of their Indian gaming industries and their facilities. But there is no state in the country where the impact has been greater on the state itself than here in Oklahoma.”
Boon to tribes and the state
Indian gaming establishments sent more than $132 million in exclusivity fees to state government in fiscal year 2016, an increase of 3 percent. Since the first compacts were signed in 2005, tribal gaming has contributed more than $1.3 billion to
the state’s budget. About 88 percent of those gaming exclusivity fees go to education, with the rest to the state’s general revenue fund.
“Indian gaming is first and foremost, both statutorily and philosophically,
for the economic selfsufficiency of the tribes,” Klas said. “But nevertheless, in order to negotiate and get the compacts that have allowed this industry to grow, the tribes had the foresight to agree to this type of arrangement at a manageable level, and it has produced real results for them.”
Klas said the state and tribal gaming compacts
gave some legal certainty to Indian gaming in the state, with investment complementing other structural reasons for the growth in Oklahoma. The state has casinos in many locations and is bordered by large states, like Texas, that don’t have tribal casino gaming except in limited circumstances.
The report said Oklahoma gaming establishments
had 45.88 million visits in 2015, including 18.7 million visits from out-ofstate residents. More than 80 percent of the out-ofstate visitors are going to rural casinos.
“These are dollars coming to Oklahoma that wouldn’t have come otherwise,” Robinson said. “These are visitors coming to Oklahoma that probably wouldn’t have come
otherwise. They’re not only spending money at the casinos and the casino hotels, they have to buy gas and they get groceries.”
A report earlier this month by the National Indian Gaming Commission found gaming revenues for the Oklahoma City region grew 5.7 percent in the last fiscal year. That compared to a national growth rate of 4.4 percent.
Tulsa region gaming revenues increased 4 percent.
Nationally, tribes generated $31.2 billion in gross gaming revenues last fiscal year, the report said. Gross gaming revenues in the Oklahoma City region, which includes western Oklahoma and Texas, grew to $2.265 billion in fiscal year 2016. Tulsa region revenues grew to $2.295 billion in fiscal year 2016.