Choctaw Nation and Cherokee Nation offer first ball and dice games

Tuesday, August 21, 2018  

The Choctaw Nation and the Cherokee Nation became the first tribes to offer ball and dice games in Oklahoma.

The Choctaw Nation's facility in Durant rolled out craps and roulette games on Friday, KXII reported. The Cherokee Nation followed on Monday at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa.

"A lot of our big players have been asking about it and waiting for it, just contacting us every single day asking when are we going to go," Tyler Ross, a table games manager at the Choctaw casino in Durant, told KXII.

The games became official after the Bureau of Indian Affairs published approval of 13 Class III gaming compacts in the Federal Register on Friday. The Choctaws and the Cherokees were among the first to update their agreements to include the new offerings.

“It lets us compete better with casinos out of state,” Mickey Ward, the senior director of corporate gaming at Hard Rock, told The Tulsa World. “Now people don’t have to leave the state if they want this type of game.”

The expanded games are expected to bring additional revenues into tribal and state coffers.

Choctaw Casino played their first ball and dice games today (KXII August 17, 2018)
Hard Rock Casino's new ball and dice games (KTUL August 20, 2018)
Traditional roulette, dice games now available (The Oklahoman August 20, 2018)
Ball And Dice Games Receive Federal Approval (News on 6 August 20, 2018)
'Ball and dice' gaming begins in Oklahoma casinos (The Tulsa World August 20, 2018)

Tribes secure approval to offer ball and dice games in Oklahoma (August 17, 2018)
Tribes wait for approval to offer new games at casinos in Oklahoma (August 6, 2018)
Cherokee Nation welcomes expansion of gaming with ball and dice games (May 10, 2018)
Bill authorizes ball and dice games at tribal casinos in Oklahoma (March 15, 2018)