Broken Arrow Casino -

[Townsend]

The casino is a fireworks stand now.
Bet their insurance people are nervous.

There's a fireworks stand at the other "casino site" at 111th and Yale.  Must be a thing.

[patric]

The tribe is playing the race card to the hilt, comparing Congressman John Sullivan to the Major General of the same name that slaughtered Iroquois during the summer of 1779.

[patric]

it's Baaaaaack...

http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story/Broken-Arrow-casino-developers-look-to-Creek/ZnRWmV8x9kavk5HnTiYS7g.cspx

[AquaMan]

I talked to a young family man from Shreveport recently about why he left that city. He said the gambling was pervasive there and was choking the city. He had heard Tulsa was a good family town but is becoming dismayed by seeing the same thing here.

There is no need for another casino with four major operations surrounding the city. Its analagous to putting QT's on every prime corner in the city. Its great for QT but for the city its boring, decreases, diversity of offerings, increases traffic problems and makes bullies look like good guys.

I doubt if anyone can document that the money invested back into the community from casinos outweighs the damage from sucking up so much disposable entertainment income and creating so much misery in the process.

[RecycleMichael]

Why should Broken Arrow gamblers have to drive over ten miles to play some slot machines? If east Tulsa, west Tulsa, southwest Tulsa, northwest Tulsa County all have casinos, why not southeast Tulsa County?

I never gamble at any of these, but am not convinced they are all bad. Catoosa has seen quite a bit of growth and development from theirs. This location was tucked up against a toll road and would probably never be developed until this. The casinos and related restaurants and hotels make quite a few jobs.

[Red Arrow]

Why should Broken Arrow gamblers have to drive over ten miles to play some slot machines?

It's part of living in the 'burbs.  If they wanted to be close to everything, they should live in the city.   

[shadows]

It is a dirty shame that the white people of Broken Arrow don't want those Indians, who are addicted to gambling, to have a place of their own to gamble away their resources in the promised lands, which by treaty was given to them forever.     

[AquaMan]

Why should Broken Arrow gamblers have to drive over ten miles to play some slot machines? If east Tulsa, west Tulsa, southwest Tulsa, northwest Tulsa County all have casinos, why not southeast Tulsa County?

I never gamble at any of these, but am not convinced they are all bad. Catoosa has seen quite a bit of growth and development from theirs. This location was tucked up against a toll road and would probably never be developed until this. The casinos and related restaurants and hotels make quite a few jobs.

Ten miles? Gamblers drive and fly hundreds to thousands of miles to quench their thirst. Bad is a subjective/pejorative term. I don't think the people running them are bad or immoral. I think their dominance in the marketplace has been adverse to the community. The argument you've proposed could be used for lots of poor development (legal marijuana shops for instance). You should really go to these entertainment venues and observe. Very sad. Then get some old yellow pages and newspapers from before the casinos arrived and look at the difference in diversity Tulsa used to have.

Shadows, businessmen who pillage their communities and abuse their brothers come from all races, creeds and colors. I felt bad to see their accountant on TV saying they could distance themselves from operation and still satisfy the law. Look! We're just like the white guys! We can rationalize too!

[Townsend]

Muscogee (Creek) Nation Votes Down Casino Plan

http://kwgs.com/post/muscogee-creek-nation-votes-down-casino-plan

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. (AP) — Tribal council members with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation have voted against taking over a controversial Broken Arrow casino initially set up by the Kialegee Tribal Town.

Council members voted 7-2 against the proposal Tuesday night. Officials say that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation would have received 70 percent of profits from the Red Clay Casino had the council agreed to the proposal.

Developers had hoped to finish work on the Red Clay Casino and sell it to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

A federal judge stopped work earlier this year at the casino site, finding that Kialegee Tribal Town did not have jurisdiction to build the casino on the land in Broken Arrow. Kialegee officials have said the casino could bring in $25 million annually.

[patric]

Oklahoma Creeks have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the Poarch Band of Creek Indians from building a 20-story hotel and casino on what they say is sacred ancestral land in Wetumpka.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/12/oklahoma_creeks_file_lawsuit_t.html

The lawsuit, filed by the Muscogee Nation, claims the Poarch Band acquired the Wetumpka land under the false pretense of preservation, did not have permission from descendants when they excavated graves eight years ago and that the ceremonial and burial grounds should be protected under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

"The ceremonial ground is sacred, so it is not a proper place for a casino," said Mekko George Thompson, a ceremonial chief for Creeks descended from those that once lived at the Wetumpka site.

The Poarch Band issued a statement  saying they believe the lawsuit will be found to be without merit.

"While we respect the Muskogee Tribe's rights as a sovereign Indian nation, we cannot agree with the Muskogee's efforts to control the use of our land," said a statement issued by the Poarch Band.

The lawsuit asks the court to order a halt to construction, demand the return of excavated remains to their original location and to declare invalid a federal decision holding the land "in trust" for the Poarch Creeks.

"The excavation is offensive to the Muscogee (Creeks) who believe that the eternal peace of  their ancestors has been irrevocably disturbed by opening graves and separating them from funerary objects which were placed there to accompany them in the afterlife," the lawsuit says.

The Muscogee say the Wetumpka site, called Hickory Ground, is sacred because it is a burial ground, a ceremonial site and was the last home of their ancestors prior to the tribe's forced removal to Indian Territory in the 1830s.

The lawsuit, filed in Montgomery federal court, also names the Department of the Interior and Auburn University as defendants. Auburn researchers assisted with grave excavation.

The lawsuit also questioned the Poarch ability to build a casino at the site at all.

The lawsuit pointed to a controversial 2009 Supreme Court decision that said the federal government could not take land into trust for tribes which were not federally recognized before 1934. The Poarch Creeks did not gain recognition until the 1980s.

Having the land federally recognized as Indian land allows the tribe to bypass state gambling and tax laws.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Why should Broken Arrow gamblers have to drive over ten miles to play some slot machines? If east Tulsa, west Tulsa, southwest Tulsa, northwest Tulsa County all have casinos, why not southeast Tulsa County?

I never gamble at any of these, but am not convinced they are all bad. Catoosa has seen quite a bit of growth and development from theirs. This location was tucked up against a toll road and would probably never be developed until this. The casinos and related restaurants and hotels make quite a few jobs.

I don't think that 'surface' economic activity can ever make up for the toll it takes from the vast majority of the people who go to those places.  The average person is a far cry from the "rich beautiful people" image the advertising puts out there.  They are trying to show, as all advertising for crippling, addictive behavior does, that if you, to participate, you will be rich and beautiful (think beer, liquor, and cigarette ads.)  Typical casino addict can not afford the massive financial drain in the form of lost wages.  And society cannot afford the financial drain due to subsidization of the addiction.

But it is a slick way for the Indians to get back at the whites for 400 years of discrimination, abuse, and genocide....

[nathanm]

What, you're saying it doesn't make me look better when I go win 5,000 at the blackjack table? (or more likely lose around 2,000)


...


DOP.

[patric]

But it is a slick way for the Indians to get back at the whites for 400 years of discrimination, abuse, and genocide....

But werent they really being victimized again by the organized crime entities that actually ran the casinos?

[Red Arrow]

What, you're saying it doesn't make me look better when I go win 5,000 at the blackjack table? (or more likely lose around 2,000)
...
DOP.

Add a few adult beverages consumed by the observer in question and I think you'll be a winner.   

[Red Arrow]

DOP.

Dirty Old Pervert?

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/DOP