Oklahoma has long been synonymous with Bingo. That’s because the Indian tribes of Oklahoma have run Bingo games for years. Guests from all of the surrounding states load up in trucks and travel to Oklahoma to play Bingo for the weekends.
The 1988 (IGRA) Indian Gaming Regulatory Act followed a landmark decision by The U.S. Supreme Court just the year prior. Since that instance, 23 of the 39 American Indian tribes located in Oklahoma have established gambling halls. The Chickasaw were the first Oklahoma Native band to take advantage of the gaming restrictions, and today control ten gambling dens of their very own. Bingo is the game on which these casinos were built on. computerized games like slots were not permitted, since they’re believed to lead to gambling problems at a higher rate than bingo.
In the past few years, Oklahoma law has changed to allow for large Indian gaming gambling dens. You will now see American Indian gambling halls with slot machine games, video poker and 21 tables. Craps and roulette are still not allowed in the Native gambling halls as of yet, although this is just a matter of time. No one can say what having different games in the bingo parlors will do for the appeal of bingo.