Cherokee Nation to build USD 23M casino in Grove

The 39,000-square-foot casino at Highway 59 and East 250 Road is expected in operation in late December or January with more than 400 electronic games, table games and a private high-limit poker room. It also will have a restaurant, bar, live music venue and a dance floor.

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Oklahoma is one of the top states in the nation in gambling at American Indian casinos

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"We had been looking at the market for a long time and trying to find the best spot," said Mark Fulton, the chief operating officer of Cherokee Nation Entertainment.

The casino, which is projected to have more than 400,000 visitors a year, will be built near the Shangri-La Golf Club, marina and resort at Monkey Island, a peninsula on the northern shore of Grand Lake.

Oklahoma is one of the top states in the nation in gambling at American Indian casinos. Fulton said the casino will concentrate on the area around Grove and Grand Lake. The Grove casino is scheduled to open shortly before a new state casino will open in Pittsburg, Kansas. That casino, the $70.2 million Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel, is expected to have 625 slot machines and 16 gaming tables, and attract an estimated 500,000 visitors a year.