Indian gaming helps Oklahoma

The local Indian gaming association revealed that rural areas in the state are getting benefits from the industry.

US.- The Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association has recently released an economic impact report, which was discussed this week during the association’s annual conference, and establishes that rural areas in the state are getting benefited from Indian gaming.

Two thirds of the jobs created by the gaming industry have landed in rural areas, as NewsOK cited the report. Oklahoma currently features 131 Indian gaming facilities that employ approximately 28k people. The study was conducted by Jim Klas and Matthew Robinson, as well as Kyle Dean, director of the Center for Native American and Urban Studies at Oklahoma City University.

Whilst 57 percent of employees at gambling facilities are not members of Indian tribes, the rest belong to native organisations. “Oklahoma tribes and the state of Oklahoma have reasons to be extremely proud of what is happening here in the Indian gaming industry. We work all over the country and in Canada, and every tribe and every state has reason to be proud of their Indian gaming industries and their facilities. But there is no state in the country where the impact has been greater on the state itself than here in Oklahoma,” said Klas, with consulting firm KlasRobinson Q.E.D, as the news outlet informed.

Moreover, during fiscal 2016 Indian establishments contributed with more than US$132 million in exclusivity fees to the state government, a 3 percent increase when compared with the previous year. Gross gaming revenues totaled US$31.2 billion during las year’s fiscal, whilst Oklahoma City region collected US$2.2 billion as well.