$15.6bn in economic impact: report enumerates benefits that gaming brings to Oklahoma

Numbers show gaming’s significance growing in the state economy.

A report prepared by the Oklahoma Tribal Finance Consortium has enumerated the multifarious benefits that tribal gaming brings to the state’s economy. 

Fourteen tribes in total participated in the study.  

According to the report, the industry has brought more than $15.6bn in impact to the state’s economy. This was a $2.6bn increase in activity from 2017 to 2019, the last period for which data was collected. 

Over this period, tribes directly employed over 54,000 people and, through ancillary connections such as healthcare and hospitality, supported 113,442 jobs in the state.  

The report expanded on the nature of the impact that the tribal gaming economy brings to the state.  

Healthcare is a notable area worth highlighting. In what is a rather lean era for medical access expansion in the Sooner State, tribes flush with the earnings from gaming have continued to invest millions of dollars on medical clinics in the state. Altogether, tribes operate 45 facilities in the state which benefit both Native and non-Native peoples.  

According to radio station KOSU, Kyle Dean – associate professor of economics at Oklahoma City University and the man credited with compiling the report – healthcare “is one of the most significant pieces of infrastructure.”  

At another point, the report noted that tribal construction of healthcare facilities saves the state money because tribal healthcare is subsidized by the federal government. 

Another area that tribal money helps prop up is transportation infrastructure. By leveraging federal money, tribes are able to invest in road and bridge construction, benefitting all who use them and stimulating the local economy. 

Cameron Saunders

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