In the state of Oklahoma, two federally-recognized tribes had their membership status in the major Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association temporarily suspended and the suspension will last at least by the end of this year. This news came shortly after the two federally-recognized tribes in Oklahoma have inked fully updated gaming compacts with the state’s Governor’s office.

According to one report released by The Oklahoman and Tulsa World news outlets, the first federally-recognized tribe to be suspended from the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association is the Comanche Nation Tribe which just last month revised its fifteen-year deal that they had with the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association. According to the terms and conditions of this deal, the federally-recognized tribe agreed to pay a collection of exclusivity fees in order to be given necessary permissions to construct and operate up to three new gambling-friendly venues.

Nonetheless, as reported by the Tulsa World news outlet, these recently updated gaming compacts resulted in openly displayed anger form eleven other federally-recognized tribes in the state of Oklahoma which are still very much engaged in federal lawsuits that relate to contention which had their previous fifteen-year business arrangements renewed automatically back in Decembers of 2019.

Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribes Suspended

As mentioned at the beginning, the casino-operating, federally-recognized Comanche Nation and Otoe-Missouria Tribe are the two recently suspended members of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association. Chairman of this association Matthew Morgan issued one declaration in that he revealed that this federally-recognized tribe has been suspended temporarily from the association following the recent alteration of the association’s by-laws.

According to this, the tribe has to wait until December of this year before being able to ask for re-admission. In his official statement, Matthew Morgan said that this was a rather difficult decision, but also the right one to make. He also added that the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association always works best when all of its members are reliable and trustworthy and when all of its members work side by side to support the casino gaming industry in the state of Oklahoma as a whole.

For their part, Otoe-Missouria’s Chairman John Shotton said in one of his official statements that his tribe had already inked its fully revised business agreement with the state’s governor and it has plans to follow the entire federal process for the negotiated gaming compact approval.

He also added that regardless of the decision of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, there are no hierarchies of Indian country’s sovereign nations. This means that every tribe has the necessary rights to negotiate the very gaming compact that is available. He finished its official press release by saying that Otoe-Missouria remains supportive of other tribes and their fights for the best gaming compacts.

Casinos Operated by the Tribes

The Comanche Nation is a federally-recognized Native-American tribe whose territory mainly consists of tribal lands in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado while the tribe is officially based in Lawton, Oklahoma. The tribal organization operates ten smoke shops and four casinos including the Lawton-based Comanche Nation Casino venue as well as Comanche Red River Casino located in Devol, Elgin-based Comanche Spur Casino, and Walters-based Comanche Star Casino.

The Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians federally-recognized tribal organization also located in the state of Oklahoma operates five casinos including its 7 Clans Paradise Casino located in Red Rick, Newkirk-based First Council Casino, Lil’ Bit of Paradise Casino also located in Newkirk and Lil’ Bit of Paradise Casino located in Red Rock.

The vast majority of tribal casinos operating in the state of California shut down their operations recently due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which is present in over two hundred countries globally. The casinos in the state closed as part of the state of California measures that have been implemented in order to combat the spread of the highly-contagious, potentially-deadly coronavirus pandemic.

As expected, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic had negatively affected all industries as well as all companies and casino operators are not excluded. When it comes to tribal casinos in the state of California, the venues could potentially face extreme financial costs if they are not allowed to resume their operations before June. According to one report released by The Desert Sun news outlet, this is shared by General Manager for Augustine Casino, Jef Bauer who said that the costs related to re-opening California casinos will be enormous especially when associated with the costs of reviving these facilities.

California Tribal Casinos Closed Since the 15th of March

The same newspaper reported that tribal casinos in the state of California started shutting down their doors to the public since the 15^th of March in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Some of these tribal casinos that are not operational today are the Red Earth Casino venue of Imperial County that is owned and operated by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians federally-recognized tribe. This facility became one of the latest in southern California to shut down its doors.

This move came shortly after the state’s Governor Mr. Newsome began imploring residents of the state of California to stay at home unless unnecessarily. At the same time, the state’s Governor has not given any indication regarding when this quarantine measures may be lifted. The Desert Sun news outlet also reported that the Augustine Casino venue owned and operated by the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians federally-recognized tribe is not operational as well.

Crippling Re-Opening Costs

The facility is packed with eight hundred slot machines. It is located on the tribe’s six hundred and forty-acre tribal land situated in Riverside County’s Coachella city. General Manager for this California tribal casino Jef Bauer declared in one of his latest official press releases that the overall process of opening the Augustine Casino venue as well as other facilities of this size in the area will doubtlessly involve all sorts of costs.

Some of these costs which these venues would not have in normal circumstances include hiring charges and marketing costs. In his words, the costs will be rather crippling for these tribal operators if the situation does not get under control soon and if these venues are not allowed to re-open soon. He also told The Desert Sun newspaper that many aboriginal casinos in the state of California are also very likely to face many months and even years of rather decreased business once the pandemic threat is no longer present.

In his opinion, some of the major obstacles and challenges which casino operators cannot avoid come face to face with health-related anxieties, reductions in workforces and similar. All in all, many of the California casinos have pledged to continue investing in staff wages as well as providing staff benefits during the shutdown and one of those venues is Augustine Casino.