#10: River Spirit Casino
Preparations
for cycling from San Fran to LA continue. Pedaling for five hours at
the weekend is boring but ultimately doable. The mental torment of
being constantly overtaken is far more challenging. Attributing it to
the niceness of their bikes becomes more and more hollow as they get fatter and
grayer.
On Saturday I stopped at the River Spirit Casino during a ride and took advantage of the complimentary drinks. The trail follows the Arkansas River trail about nine miles south of Tulsa.
Date of creation: 2006
Creek Nation Tulsa Bingo first opened on the banks of the Arkansas River in 1984. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act establishes a federal agency to over see Indian gaming in 1988. People get tired of vanilla bingo and Muscogee (Creek) Nation plan a $75 million complex offering high-stakes bingo and electronic slot machine bingo in 2003.
Oklahoma voted to allow Indian tribes to operate electronic casino games in 2004. The Creek Nation Casino opens in 2006, re-opening as the River Spirit Casino in 2009, the second tallest in the state, before the adjacent Margaritaville opens in 2013. Oklahoma now has 113 tribal casinos, accounting for 44% of the revenue of casinos in the US.
The Seminole Tribe took advantage by opening a bingo hall with stakes exceeding Florida's legal maximum. State police arrested the organisers on the opening night. The tribe appealed to the Supreme Court, who ruled that the Florida Bingo Statute had no authority on tribal land in 1982. And so began the history of Indian Gaming.
How do I feel about it? The murky world of business partnerships feels like extortion; for example, Trump opened a casino on a Californian reservation, with his ownership ended in 2006. Then again, research has found:
"Examining the effects of casinos after at least four years of operation, the authors find that positive changes include: young adults moving back to reservations, fueling an 11.5 percent population increase; adult employment increasing by 26 percent; and a 14 percent decline in the number of working poor. In counties with or near a casino, the employment- to- population ratio has increased and mortality has declined."
Casino work still seems like a poverty trap. Maybe I'll ask some of the staff on my next pit stop.
People watching in a casino at 9am on a Saturday is terrifying. The fair-weather gamblers are tucking into a buffet breakfast and only the manic remain. Paranoid glares deterred the amateur sociologist in me. Desperation abounds.
It feels like a life hack. The casino even has a back-entrance next to the bike trail. I will be returning for more free coffee.
Notes from an artist
New technique: salt-water colour. It looked cool until it dried. A different family elder has suggested I need to expand my brush collection beyond the only brush I currently own.
On Saturday I stopped at the River Spirit Casino during a ride and took advantage of the complimentary drinks. The trail follows the Arkansas River trail about nine miles south of Tulsa.
Date of creation: 2006
Creek Nation Tulsa Bingo first opened on the banks of the Arkansas River in 1984. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act establishes a federal agency to over see Indian gaming in 1988. People get tired of vanilla bingo and Muscogee (Creek) Nation plan a $75 million complex offering high-stakes bingo and electronic slot machine bingo in 2003. Oklahoma voted to allow Indian tribes to operate electronic casino games in 2004. The Creek Nation Casino opens in 2006, re-opening as the River Spirit Casino in 2009, the second tallest in the state, before the adjacent Margaritaville opens in 2013. Oklahoma now has 113 tribal casinos, accounting for 44% of the revenue of casinos in the US.
Historical significance: 75
As the nominee controversy roars on, this story begins with a unanimous (!!!) Supreme Court decision in 1976 to overrule the Minnesota Supreme Court. In Bryan vs Itasca County, the Supreme Court held that states could neither collect taxes on nor regulate the activities of Natives on reservations. Russell and Helen Bryan did not have to pay their property tax bill.The Seminole Tribe took advantage by opening a bingo hall with stakes exceeding Florida's legal maximum. State police arrested the organisers on the opening night. The tribe appealed to the Supreme Court, who ruled that the Florida Bingo Statute had no authority on tribal land in 1982. And so began the history of Indian Gaming.
How do I feel about it? The murky world of business partnerships feels like extortion; for example, Trump opened a casino on a Californian reservation, with his ownership ended in 2006. Then again, research has found:
"Examining the effects of casinos after at least four years of operation, the authors find that positive changes include: young adults moving back to reservations, fueling an 11.5 percent population increase; adult employment increasing by 26 percent; and a 14 percent decline in the number of working poor. In counties with or near a casino, the employment- to- population ratio has increased and mortality has declined."
Casino work still seems like a poverty trap. Maybe I'll ask some of the staff on my next pit stop.
European-ness: 3.4
Euromillions preys on the same desperation but is at least masked in a veneer of social justice with lottery funded projects.Cowboy hats: 1
Yesssss. Spotted one cowboy hat at the breakfast buffet. Joy. Honourable mention to adult dungarees.
Collective consciousness: 78
Within three minutes I was apprehended by a security guard who radioed in "searching the Caucasian male in the orange shirt and short-shorts, over". We had a good chat after she searched my bag to find one banana, one chocolate bar, and a spare inner tube. Their main problem is people bringing drugs in. I enjoyed the idea a gang might recruit a sweaty, 6ft 5 European kitted out in cycling gear as a drug mule to throw them off the scent.People watching in a casino at 9am on a Saturday is terrifying. The fair-weather gamblers are tucking into a buffet breakfast and only the manic remain. Paranoid glares deterred the amateur sociologist in me. Desperation abounds.
Wokeness: -36
This is most surely not woke, regardless of where the proceeds are going.Overall
It feels like a life hack. The casino even has a back-entrance next to the bike trail. I will be returning for more free coffee.
Notes from an artist
New technique: salt-water colour. It looked cool until it dried. A different family elder has suggested I need to expand my brush collection beyond the only brush I currently own.
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