Ready to play: The gaming's afoot for Shawnees
The Oklahoman Editorial
January 31, 2008
 
THE visceral reaction to the Shawnee Tribe's first proposal for an Oklahoma City casino seemed absent last week when the tribe gave more detail on what it wants to do on land it recently bought at Interstate 35 and Britton Road.
 
After Bricktown was taken off the table as a potential casino site, in 2005, the landless tribe now has a plan that will take flight if the I-35 site gains trust status.
 
The proposal is ambitious, impressive and expensive — as well as controversial — with 2,000 slot machines, a multistory hotel, retail, movie theater and bowling alley. The goal is creation of a destination entertainment venue, which is one of the reasons it's controversial: Another expensive destination entertainment venue is nearby.
 
Remington Park offers horse racing and a relatively small casino. Having a $400 million casino in the neighborhood worries Remington officials, city leaders and the state's horse industry.
 
We understand their concerns. This is a heritage industry that needs a good track in the heart of Oklahoma.
 
Yet the Shawnees believe their casino and Remington could achieve a kind of synergy that would also take in other entertainment sites in the area. While city residents will vote March 4 on a temporary sales tax to improve a downtown entertainment venue, the Shawnee want to build one with private money and have offered to fund public improvements such as roads around the casino site.
 
As we've said before, we applaud the tribe for doing things the right way — methodically weighing the options, being extraordinarily amenable to local concerns and not waving the red flag of sovereignty when the going gets tough.
 
We, too, are concerned about the location and the project's effect on Remington. Nevertheless, citizens and city leaders owe the tribe a non-visceral reaction to these plans.
 
The potential investment and employment are enormous.