The State of Indian Casinos in Oklahoma

A Travelogue from the Bloggers at GamblingResort.com

GamblingResort.com recently spent a fun week in the state of Oklahoma.

GamblingResort.com thought it would be a great idea to travel around this beautiful state to take a first hand look at Indian casinos as some 25% of all Indian casinos in the United States are located here.

In fact, the Sooner state is host to more than 90 Indian casinos of various sizes, shapes and qualities.

Extensive information about Indian casinos in all states can be found at GamblingResort.com.

This casino information and travel site also rates venues on a "Four Ace" scale. The highest quality places receive a rating of "Four Aces."

Automobile was the preferred mode of travel in this quest to visit as many places as possible within a week's time. At the end of the trip, some 1,200 miles were logged by the road-weary Chevrolet HHR rental car used by the bloggers at GamblingResort.com.

These are the Indian tribes that own casinos in Oklahoma:  Absentee Shawnee. Apache. Arapaho. Cherokee. Cheyenne. Chickasaw. Choctaw. Citizen Band Potawatomi. Comanche. Creek. Delaware. Eastern Shawnee. Fort Sill Apache. Iowa. Kaw. Kickapoo. Kiowa. Miami. Modoc. Osage. Otoe-Missouria. Ottawa. Pawnee. Peoria. Ponca. Quapaw. Sac and Fox. Wyandotte.

Finding some of the casinos on back-country roads on Indian land is no easy task. Google maps might point one in the general direction, but could not quite pin down some spots.

Many times it became necessary to get directions the old fashioned way: by asking a friendly Oklahoman.

Most locals knew exactly where these places were. "Go four miles east." Or, "Make a left at the last traffic light before the highway and you can't miss it." Or, "It's north of town on the way to Tulsa."

And, then came the rain. Serious rain. The kind of rain that renders windshield wipers useless. An unfamiliar road in an unfamiliar place became a blind alleyway in which the onslaught of water buried any hope one might have had of driving further for a time.

The car was eased to the nearest exit point to stop and wait it out.

Some forty minutes later a sliver of light broke through the clouds. Blue skies never looked so good. At times, Oklahoma is at the crossroads of turbulent weather in America. This is "Tornado Alley," after all, an area hammered over the years by storms all too familiar to the local settlers.

Now the wide-eyed travelers from California got a sense of what the locals new all too well.

Same with some of the Indian casinos scattered about the state. Some of these casinos are definitely more impressive than others, but with some 90 or so to choose from, that's no surprise.

Take the Riverwind, west of Norman.  It is a beautiful place and it's easy to find.  It sits just off Interstate 35 at  State Highway 9 going west, not too far from the exit ramp.

This brightly colored building rises conspicuously out of the prairie like a blue whale surfacing for air at sea.

Hard to imagine that anybody could continue down the nearby interstate without stopping here first to at least take a closer look.

The casino is 76,000 square feet, has some 2,300 slots and dozens of table games like blackjack.  This place rates a 3 out of 4 aces.

A new hotel there is currently under construction as of this writing and should be completed later in the year.

This casino is owned by the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.  More information about it can be found here.

Another favorite of the crew at GamblingResort.com is located in the northeast corner of the state. More precisely, the Downstream Casino Resort can be found at the so called, "Three-States Marker," where the borders of three states meet, west of Joplin, Missouri.

Entrance to the Downstream property is in Missouri. The parking lot is in Kansas. The front door to the casino is in Oklahoma. But no identity crisis here. From an aesthetic point of view, this casino rivals some of the best looking hot spots in Nevada or New Jersey.

The Downstream has 70,000 square feet of gambling space, over 2,000 slots and 45 table games.  A 255-room hotel will open shortly.  This place rates a 4 out of 4 aces.

This casino is owned by the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma. More information can be found here.

The travel website, GamblingResort.com, ever-growing in popularity, provides information about all the Indian casinos in Oklahoma and other states.  It is a great resource for those planning to visit a gambling destination here or anywhere else in the country.  One can find all sorts of useful stuff, including photos, casino statistics, map locators, addresses and phone numbers for every casino in the USA and beyond.

One can also book hotels at GamblingResort.com. Give it a try!