By Tony Thornton
The Oklahoman
ANADARKO — It wasn’t the gambling, but a job, that lured Amy Boyibble inside Anadarko’s newest casino.
The potential for big tips as a beverage server convinced her to quit her secretarial job in February. She was told the Silver Buffalo Casino would open March 5.
That opening still hasn’t occurred. No customers meant virtually no income. As a result, she and her four children face a likely eviction from their home.
Boyibble quit this week to find another job. That may require moving to Lawton, she said, because “there’s no jobs in Anadarko.”
Half of the casino’s 72 employees, mainly Apache Tribe members, have quit amid numerous delays in gaining approval to open by federal regulators.
The casino’s general manager, Glen Coleman, blames the disparities between the treatment of smaller tribes such as the Apaches and larger, casino-rich tribes like the Chickasaws and Cherokees.
“It’s really a shame. It’s not fair what’s going on,” he said.
While the tribe and its people — many of them employees — are affected by the delays, so is Oklahoma’s education system, Coleman said.
The reason: The Silver Buffalo was to be the state’s first fully compacted casino, meaning all of its 250 electronic machines would be Class III devices approved under a compact with the state.
The state receives 4 percent to 6 percent of the amount produced by each of those machines, all earmarked for public education.
Coleman previously managed the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s south Tulsa casino and opened the Chickasaw Nation’s WinStar, the largest casino in Oklahoma.
He said the National Indian Gaming Commission never would have allowed those tribes to experience the sort of delays Coleman has seen since last fall.
Checkered past
Regulators have reasons for being extra careful with the Apaches, Coleman concedes.
In 1999, the Indian gaming commission closed the tribe’s previous casino for several serious violations. Those included:
Using illegal games.
Failing to submit annual audits for four straight years.
Not conducting background investigations on the casino’s managers and key employees.
Failing to pay fines for some of the other violations.
Political instability also has been a trademark of the Apache Tribe.
To Phil Hogen, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, those factors warrant extra attention.
“I appreciate that people need jobs and the tribe’s programs need funding, but gosh, let’s do it right. If it means taking a day more to do it right so it lasts, that’s what needs to be done,” Hogen said Friday.
Coleman said the commission’s Tulsa office has created a “moving target” by consistently requiring additional information each time the casino filed required documents.
State Finance Director Claudia San Pedro estimates the casino will produce $250,000 a year in state revenue. Last year the state received nearly $8.2 million from tribes for compacted games.
San Pedro said the state could use the money from the Apache Tribe’s casino, but not at the expense of accountability.
“Given the past regulatory and compliance issues between the Apache Tribe and the NIGC (gaming commission), the most important factor is to ensure the casino and the NIGC work to resolve these issues,” she said.
Coleman’s financial projections are somewhat higher than San Pedro’s. He claims the tribe already has lost $1 million, because the casino should have opened three months ago.
In a letter sent Thursday, Hogen urged Nathan Tselee, the tribe’s business committee chairman, to exercise patience.
The commission’s Tulsa field office, with just three investigators and two auditors, must oversee more than 80 gaming centers in Oklahoma, plus others in Kansas, Missouri and Texas.
“I think we’re getting close (to an opening date), but whether it’s hours, days week or months, I just don’t know,” Hogen said Friday.
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