Post details: Cherokee Nation plans to begin no-limit blackjack, poker games next week
01/16/05
CATOOSA, Okla. (AP) -- The Cherokee Nation plans to begin games of blackjack and poker with no-limit betting at its Catoosa casino next week, tribal officials said.
David Stewart, chief executive officer of Cherokee Nation Business Enterprises, said games should begin as early as Wednesday and no later than Friday.
The first cards in the no-limit games are expected to be dealt at the Cherokee Nation Casino Resort in Catoosa, an $80 million gaming facility which opened earlier this year.
''It is going to be mayhem and chaos,'' Stewart predicted about the first day of card playing in Catoosa. ''I don't know what the other tribes will offer, but they will eventually experience the same thing.''
Stewart said the Cherokee Nation is remodeling all tribal gaming facilities to accommodate card tables. At the Catoosa site, plans are to immediately open 12 blackjack tables and eight poker tables. However, the facility will eventually have 30 each of blackjack and poker tables.
The announcement of the card games by the Cherokee Nation would appear to make it the first tribe to offer card games among local Indian gaming facilities.
Such card games are allowed under a compact agreement with the state of Oklahoma. State Question 712 established the compact, which allows Indian tribes to compact with the state for card games.
Meanwhile, the Cherokee Nation has been preparing for the day when the tribe would cut its first deck of cards.
Stewart said the tribe has been training card dealers for all Cherokee casinos, including casinos in West Siloam Springs and Roland near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border.
Other tribes thinking about expanding their gaming operations into blackjack and poker are close behind the Cherokee Nation.
Gov. Bill Anoatubby of the Chickasaw Nation announced Friday at an intertribal council meeting that his tribe's gaming compact was approved Thursday by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
''I think you will see some very positive results from the compacts, which would not have been possible without the support of our people and the legislative councils,'' Anoatubby said.
Before the first card is even dealt, casino patrons are anticipating the addition of the new gaming opportunities.
Bo Vaughn of Tulsa said he would be one of the first in line when the Cherokees deal their first hand of cards.
''It is probably the excitement of cards that will bring me in,'' Vaughn said.
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