Three More Tribal Casinos To Offer Sports Betting in Washington Via IGT

Tribal casinos in the state of Washington continue to add sports betting, with three more set to join the list.

Colville Gaming LLC announced last week that it had struck a deal with International Gaming Technology to provide sports betting at three of its casinos in central Washington: the 12 Tribes Lake Chelan Casino in Manson, the 12 Tribes Coulee Dam Casino in Coulee Dam, and the 12 Tribes Omak Casino Hotel in Omak. The closest of the three casinos to Seattle is the one in Manson, about 180 miles from the state’s biggest city.

There is no real money online gaming in Washington, nor is there mobile sports betting.

“Thanks to IGT we feel confident in our ability to provide our guests with an exciting and secure sports betting environment, and we look forward to opening our doors to sports enthusiasts soon,” 12 Tribes Colville Casinos COO Tony Posey said in a news release on colvillecasinos.com.

No launch date for sports betting at the three casinos was announced.

The path to sports betting in Washington – home of MLB’s Mariners, the NFL’s Seahawks, NHL’s Kraken, Major League Soccer’s Sounders as well as the Pac-12’s Washington and Washington State universities among other Division I athletic programs – was cleared in 2021.

Gov. Jay Inslee approved amended compacts for tribal casinos to offer sports betting in March 2020, and federal approval in September 2021 was the final hurdle cleared.

There is no true online sports betting option in the state, though that’s where the vast majority of the revenue and handle (amount wagered) comes from in other states that have made regulated sports betting markets legal in the past four years. That’s especially true in Western states such as Colorado and Arizona, where upward of 98% of wagers are placed using online devices.

In December, the Snoqualmie Casino, about 25 miles from Seattle, became the first facility to offer mobile sports betting of any kind, though it is only allowed within the casino itself.

IGT is a company that’s very familiar to casino operators wishing to offer sports betting at Washington tribal casinos.

The Snoqualmie Casino deal, announced in July 2021, came via IGT. Snoqualmie had its first bet, placed by former Seattle SuperSonics star Shawn Kemp, on Sept. 9, 2021.
IGT also supplies software for slot machines and other types of gaming.

FanDuel also agreed to team with a Washington casino in 2021, joining with Suquamish Casino for a retail sportsbook at the tribe’s facility not far from Seattle.

Another major sportsbook operator, BetMGM, agreed to a deal with the Puyallup Tribe to implement sports betting at two tribal casinos in Tacoma. That launched in December.