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Indian casinos bring revenue to businesses across the state

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LAWTON, Okla. - While many industries seem to be sagging, Indian casinos in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas are booming. The Oklahoma City region, which includes Western Oklahoma and Texas, produced over $1.3 billion. That's up almost 18 percent from the year before. And when a casino sees increased revenue, other places around see the benefits as well.

When vacationers come to Lawton to go to the casinos, they're staying in Lawton hotels, shopping in Lawton stores, and eating in Lawton restaurants. And that's a lot of tax dollars for the city.

"It's great to have casinos because the trend nowadays with the increase in prices and the instability in the airline industry is what we call stay-cations, vacations that you can drive to," said hotel manager Kimberly Staser.

Her hotel sees an average of five or six casino-goers a weekend. That's a trend casinos say will keep going up.

"We're seeing record months, month after month, last 30 months have been record months for us. And you know we don't see an end in sight," said casino manager Darell Nott.

And the more out-of-towners that travel to Lawton for casino stay-cations, the more money that goes into the City of Lawton's pockets.

"The average person spends four times the amount on what they spend in their room out in the community so that's tax dollars for the Lawton community whether it's at restaurants whether it's at retail establishments," said Staser.

Not to mention the added jobs that casino growth brings. And the spending those new workers will do too.

"Everybody spends, everybody buys homes, they rent places, they buy cars, and they spend that money on goods a services. They buy groceries, they buy gasoline, they travel, they visit the entertainment venues here," said Nott.