| |
Green Valley Ranch Gets Poker Room
Published: 2005-04-27
 Green Valley Ranch Gets Poker Room
Apr 27, 2005
Station Casinos Inc.'s Green Valley Ranch Station Casino has closed a restaurant near its sports book to make way for a new poker room that will open in a few weeks.
The company this week bought out the lease for Trophy's and closed the sports-themed restaurant.
"This is the first step in responding to guest demand for what we see as an increasingly popular game," Station Casinos spokeswoman Lesley Pittman said.
The number of poker tables in the room isn't yet known, she said.
The company will open a 24-hour casual restaurant in June to replace the restaurant.
| |
Move over bingo, here comes cards
Published: 2005-04-27
 Move over bingo, here comes cards
Muskogee Creek Nation will play its last game on Saturday; poker, blackjack set for June
By Clifton Adcock
Phoenix Staff Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creek Nation card games fast facts
Blackjack and Texas Hold 'em will replace bingo at the casino.
Scheduled to begin within 40 to 60 days.
Nine blackjack and six poker tables in Muskogee.
Around 60 to 70 new jobs possibly coming to Muskogee as a result.
There was a tribe who had a game, and bingo was it's name-o - at least until poker came along.
The Creek Nation is set to end its bingo games this Saturday at the Muskogee casino and begin preparations for card games such as Texas Hold 'em and blackjack scheduled to begin in mid-June.
"It will help us do a lot of things we couldn't do before," said Nelson Johnson, commissioner for the Creek Nation Office of Public Gaming. "It's just a matter of changing our business tactics, that and we're no longer having a game we've had for a very long time."
Officials with the casinos said the new games would bring people from all over the state, as well as from other states, possibly creating openings for more jobs and a shot in the arm for the tribe and local economy.
The Cherokee Nation and several other tribes begin having card games in January under the State and Indian Gaming Compact passed by voters in November. So far, over a dozen state tribes have signed up on the compact.
Johnson said it isn't the end for bingo games - they may make a return after everything with the card games has been put into place, but he said getting rid of the game was a "hard decision."
"I think bingo will return," Johnson said. "It's been with us for hundreds of years."
The Cherokee Nation received a huge response to the opening of its card gaming operations, and Johnson said the Creek Nation could see the same response.
"They apparently have been doing very well, and we're looking for that type of activity as well," Johnson said.
Officials said anywhere from 30 to 70 jobs could be created at Muskogee casino as a result of the card games, with more than 100 new jobs possible at the Tulsa casino.
"It's going to keep people here," said Wes Harrell, table games manager for Creek Nation casinos. "They can just go down the street (for card games). Eventually they're going to get everything here. It's going to bring ... money into our casinos and it's going to help the economic picture of every town."
Harrell said shows and entertainment would begin at Creek Nation casinos after card games are introduced, bringing a little more Las Vegas flair to the Sooner State.
The bingo tables are being removed to make way for nine blackjack tables and six poker tables at the Muskogee casino, Harrell said, and the game room will be refurbished.
Creek Nation casinos in Muskogee, Tulsa, Okmulgee and Okemah are set to begin holding card games by mid-June, Harrell said.
Maggie Cornell, assistant operating manager at the Muskogee Casino, said poker players are champing at the bit for poker to come to the city.
"There's a lot of people who call up all the time asking when we're going to get them," Cornell said.
| | |
English
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Nederlands
Pусский
Svenska