Muscogee Nation Building New $100 Million Casino Near Tulsa

The Muscogee Nation announced Thursday that it would be investing $100 million to build the Coweta Casino Hotel in Oklahoma, with the goal of opening the casino in 2026.

The new facility will be built on 17 acres of land off State Highway 51 in the city of Coweta, which is 25 minutes southwest of Tulsa.

Related Reads:

• Best Casino Sites 2024 | Top Online Casinos in USA
• Nebraska Regulators: WarHorse Casino Can Open in Omaha in August

Coweta Casino Will Be 10^th for Muscogee Nation

According to the Muscogee Nation, the project will feature a 35,000-square-foot casino that features 750 gaming machines. There will also be a small upscale casino with 46 rooms, a pool, a fitness center, and event space. Construction on the 104,000-square-foot development will begin in September.

“Investing in the City of Coweta represents a remarkable new chapter in our growing entertainment and hospitality legacy,” Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill said in a statement. “We are proud to reclaim land throughout our historic reservation and this project adds to our significant economic development investments within the greater Tulsa region.”

Muscogee Nation Gaming Enterprises (MNGE) says that the new casino should create about 250 jobs and that it plans to hire both tribal citizens and local residents to fill positions on the property.

“This project marks an exciting new chapter for our enterprise and the communities we serve,” Andy Langston, COO of MNGE, said in a statement. 

“The Coweta Casino and Hotel will be a premier destination, offering a variety of amenities to cater to all our guests’ needs.”

The Muscogee Nation currently operates nine casinos throughout the state of Oklahoma, most of which operate under the Creek Nation banner. Its flagship property is the River Spirit Casino Resort in Tulsa, which hosts 3,100 electronic games, as well as a variety of table games and a poker room on a 200,000 square foot casino floor.

Tribal Competition Shapes Oklahoma Casino Market

Building a new facility so close to River Spirit—the two facilities will be separated by only about a 35-minute drive—could be seen as a questionable decision, as the Coweta facility might largely cannibalize revenues from the tribe’s Tulsa location.

However, the Muscogee aren’t the only game in town when it comes to casino gambling. The Cherokee Nation also has a significant presence in and around Tulsa, with Cherokee Nation Entertainment (CNE) owning the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tulsa among its 14 properties. 

CNE also operates casinos in Fort Gibson and Tahlequah, which a Coweta facility could compete with for visitors who don’t want to travel into Tulsa to do their gambling.

Other tribes are also heavily involved with casino gaming in Oklahoma, and the competition can be heated. CNE recently won the sole license to operate a casino in Pope County, Arkansas, just over the border from Oklahoma. However, the project could still be scuttled by a group known as Local Voters in Charge that got its initiative on the state’s November ballot that would require local support for any new casino and invalidate CNE’s license.

Nearly all of the funding for Local Voters in Charge has come from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The Choctaw operate the Choctaw Casino & Resort Pocola, which is located about 90 miles west of where CNE wants to build its CNE casino in Russellville, Arkansas—a location that would make the two resorts direct competitors.