Most casinos in Oklahoma have both types of games. Vegas-style machines, which are covered by the state-tribal gaming agreement, use random numbers. In bingo games, people play against a pool of other players. Federal law allows tribal nations to offer games that are bingo at their core without state approval or oversight. The Chickasaw Nation’s app will operate outside of that agreement. More: Governor announces a plan for sports betting in Oklahoma, but many hurdles lie ahead Stitt has criticized those payments as too low. His proposal generated immediate controversy, because a longstanding agreement gives tribes exclusive gaming rights in exchange for paying the state millions of dollars in monthly fees.

Kevin Stitt expressed support last month for mobile sports betting, but said he wants the state to license companies, not tribal nations, to offer it. While mobile gaming has already taken hold in some states, that’s not the case in Oklahoma. “This is absolutely new to us,” said Scott Emerson, under secretary for operations at the Chickasaw Nation’s Department of Commerce.

It could give the Chickasaw Nation an early foothold in the fast-growing mobile gaming world, especially if the app eventually expands to the tribe’s other casinos or across its reservation, which stretches from the Red River to the outskirts of Norman. It will only work at the Winstar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, the tribe’s largest gaming hub near the Oklahoma-Texas line.Įven with that limitation, the new app is significant, because most forms of online wagering are not yet legal in Oklahoma. The southern Oklahoma tribe is launching a mobile gaming app that will take and pay out real money, a change from phone games where no cash changes hands. While widespread mobile wagering has not reached Oklahoma, the industry has taken off in other states.Īs the debate over sports betting heats up in Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation is rolling the dice on a different type of gambling.

A person places a mobile bet in this file photo.

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