Oklahoma receives $70M from tribal gaming last year
The Journal Record
March 4, 2008
 
TULSA – Oklahoma’s take from Indian gambling agreements tripled to $70.4 million in 2007, state records show.
 
Oklahoma took in $21.5 million in 2006 from the agreements, or compacts.
 
The Chickasaw Nation led state Indian tribes in 2007 for revenue payments with $18 million, according to Office of State Finance records. The Choctaw Nation was second with $16.5 million, and the Cherokee Nation came in third with $11.5 million.
 
The state began keeping logs on compact payments in 2005 after State Question 712 was approved in November 2004, allowing gambling agreements between Oklahoma and Indian tribes.
 
State Treasurer Scott Meacham said it is likely that up to a 50-percent increase in those payments could result if the National Indian Gaming Commission were to approve proposed regulations that would reclassify noncompacted Class II – or bingo-based – games into compacted Class III games, or slot machines.
 
The tribes have argued that the proposed rules are unfair and unnecessary. Meacham said approving those rules has a positive side to it.
 
“If payments go up, it means more tribes are converting to compact games,” he said. “But that money doesn’t go to the state as a whole, but straight to education.”
 
The tribes’ payments are derived from a percentage of the compact machines’ that the state and each tribe have negotiated in their gambling compact agreement and ranges from 6 percent to 10 percent. Currently, about 33 of 37 federally recognized tribes have compacted with the state.