Casino near Fort Smith has topping off ceremony

Special to NWA Democrat-Gazette/COREY S. KRASKO Cherokee Nation leaders and local dignitaries gather Monday for a topping out ceremony for the Cherokee Casino and Hotel in Roland, Okla. The $80 million complex includes a six-story, 120-room hotel and a casino with 850 electronic games as well as table games. The project is expected to be completed in the summer.
Special to NWA Democrat-Gazette/COREY S. KRASKO Cherokee Nation leaders and local dignitaries gather Monday for a topping out ceremony for the Cherokee Casino and Hotel in Roland, Okla. The $80 million complex includes a six-story, 120-room hotel and a casino with 850 electronic games as well as table games. The project is expected to be completed in the summer.

ROLAND, Okla. -- A huge white girder covered with the signatures of tribal officials and employees and affixed with both the U.S. and Cherokee Nation flags was hoisted atop the tribe's casino hotel project Monday.

The Cherokee Casino & Hotel is a state-of-the-art gaming complex on the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma that will eventually employ more than 400 workers. It will compete with another American Indian casino hotel, Choctaw Casino Hotel in Pocola, Okla., near the border of Fort Smith.

Construction began in April on the Cherokee Nation's $80 million project. It includes a six-story, 120-room hotel and gambling operation with 850 electronic games as well as table games. Plans also call for two dining options and an entertainment venue.

The casino and convention center area of the 170,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed sometime in May, with the hotel ready to receive guests in July.

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 similar to devices offered at out-of-state casinos.

Located just off Interstate 40 about a five-minute drive west of the Arkansas border, the casino hotel is expected to bring 100 jobs on top of those at the existing casino and hotel operation.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker said Monday the casino operations are plowing millions into projects to benefit all of the nation's citizens, including $100 million used for new health care facilities. He noted Cherokee citizen employment has moved from about 50 percent in its tribal operations to 75 percent.

"Folks, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing," he said.

The new casino hotel 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. Once the new complex is finished, the old casino and hotel eventually will be demolished.

Five of Oklahoma's Indian tribes, including the Cherokee Nation, have large-scale casino operations in the vicinity of the Arkansas line. Many of the facilities have been upgraded in recent years, adding new or expanded casino floors and non-gambling 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 casino on Interstate 540 in 2012 and added a 118-room hotel in 2013.

In September, the Cherokee Nation said a casino hotel will be part of a $170 million retail development soon to begin in Tahlequah, Okla. The three-phase project is expected to take five years to complete.

When both projects are complete, the number of Cherokee Nation casino hotels along the Arkansas border will increase to three, more than any other American Indian tribe.

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.

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, Okla.; 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 2013, Cherokee Nation Entertainment reported revenue of $549.7 million.

Business on 01/20/2015

Upcoming Events