The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma recently announced that it plans to develop a casino resort near Lake Texoma. The tribe has plans to transform the former state operated Lake Texoma Lodge and Resort and turn it into a popular tourist destination with gambling.

Tribal owned Texoma Development Holdings LLC  purchased the land from the state and finalized the contract for $4.2 million on October 27. The company acquired 50 acres of prime lakefront property which overlooks Lake Texoma and the iconic Roosevelt Bridge. They also acquired an additional 11.5 acres of land.

The Chickasaw Nation has plans to develop a casino that will host around 300 electronic gaming machines, a three-storey hotel, 10 lakefront cottages for boating and fishing, business and meeting rooms, restaurants, and a fitness center. Kingston town has welcomed the Chickasaw Nation’s proposal and has already invested $400,000 upgrading its sewage system in anticipation of the casino resort.

Kingston is not very far from Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Dallas. The town has suffered since the Lake Texoma Lodge and Resort closed and has lost millions of dollars in tourism revenue. The new casino resort is expected to create hundreds of jobs, boost the local economy and improve tourist numbers as nearly 4 million people are within a 100 mile radius of Kingston.

In a statement, Gov. Bill Anoatubby for the Chickasaw Tribe said “We believe this project will help launch a transformation of this area into a major tourism and recreation attraction. We look forward to working with the state on a project we expect to have a positive impact on jobs and our economy for decades to come”.

The Chickasaw Nation has to get approval from the Federal government to get the land into a trust status and could take several months or even years to complete the process. The property is close the Texas border, within Choctaw Nation and Chickasaw Nation territory. The Chickasaw tribe operates the Texoma Casino which is not very far from the lake while the Choctaw tribe operate a casino resort in Durant which is around 14 miles from the lake.