Casinos in Texas, Oklahoma & Washington

I do not know if they still exist, but at one point in time 2 of the Indian tribes that still exist (in small numbers) in Texas, opened small casinos. The state of Texas did not like this. I do not know if Texas was successful in shutting the Indian casinos.

Other states that long ago tried to shut down Indian casinos found themselves on the losing end of court battles with the tribes, like my old home state of Washington. Eventually the state gave up, with the result being there are now Indian casinos all over the state, pretty much every Indian Reservation has at least one casino.

That is an Orca (Killer Whale) jumping out of the water in front of the Tulalip Casino in Marysville. This casino has some very well done water features. For more pictures and a list of the Washington casinos, go here.

In Washington, like Oklahoma, there is a lot of land set aside as Indian Reservations. Texas solved their Indian problem by either killing them or running them out of the state, with a few very small reservations. Some of the famous Texas Indians, like Quanah Parker, kept up contacts with Texans, even while living in Oklahoma.

All the states bordering Texas allow casinos. The 5th largest casino in the world is just across the border, in Oklahoma, that being WinStar World Casino. It would seem that an awful lot of Texas money leaves the state and ends up in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas. There are attempts to allow casino zones in Texas. The Fort Worth Stockyards is suggested as one location. I've seen what a casino can do for an area. I think it would be a good thing for Texas to legalize casinos.

But, then again, if Texas legalized casinos it would likely destroy the border casinos, like WinStar and Choctaw Casino in Durant and Kiowa Casino, just north of Wichita Falls. It'd likely be hard on all those riverboat casinos in Shreveport/Bossier City in Louisiana.

Oklahoma has an incredible number of casinos, as in dozens upon dozens. Go here to see a list of all the casinos in Oklahoma.

Many of the Washington casinos have added large hotel type resorts to their casinos, just like WinStar World and Choctaw Casinos have done in Oklahoma. The revenue from the casino resorts has made the tribes in Washington much more prosperous.

However, if I were the dictator I would have never allowed casino gambling anywhere but Nevada. I used to really like going to Nevada. It was like a whole different type world as soon as you crossed the border. All that neon and the clink clink clink of slot machines virtually everywhere. Nevada ceased being unique well before I moved to Texas. The Skagit Valley, where I lived, even back then, had 2 large casinos. Now they are much larger, and totally Nevada-like. Slot machines were allowed after I moved to Texas. Those really amped up the popularity of the casinos.

So, now that the casino lid is totally off, for the most part, Texas really should join the club and stop sending all that money to the bordering states.