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Oklahoma Residents Opposes Shawnee Tribe Casino Plans

On May 8th, 2009, more than one thousand government leaders, officials, educators, business leaders and ordinary citizens have written letters of criticism to the plans of the Shawnee Tribe to construct a Las Vegas-like hotel and casino facility in Oklahoma City. The letter was submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Muskogee during a thirty day public comment period in 2008.

The Bureau will have the final decision on the Shawnee Tribe's application to place the land near Remington Park into trust. If that happens, the Shawnee Tribe, which is based in Miami, Oklahoma, plans to construct a $400 million destination casino and hotel along I-35 near Remington Park.

Scott Wells, Remington Park General Manager said that this plan could severely affect Oklahoma horse racing. Some individuals say that the casino-hotel project would not only affect Remington Park, it would also spell doom to the horse racing industry and horse breeding industry of Oklahoma. Wells said that he is surprised that there are only 6 letters supporting the project were submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Wells said that he figured out that with the hundreds of thousands of dollars the tribe has spent on publicity for the project, it would have convince more people to favor the project. The Chairman of the Shawnee Tribe Development, Greg Pitcher, states that the bureau will hold public meetings for the casino issue and that is when he expects supporters of the project to speak up.

The tribe launched a media campaign last year to try convince Oklahoma residents that the casino-hotel project would benefit Remington Park. The public comment period ended on June 9th, 2009 but the Bureau of Indian Affairs recently publicly released copies of all the letters regarding the casino issue following requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

05/18/2009 20:31 PM

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