Federal panel will visit Oklahoma to discuss casinos

MIAMI, OK — A congressional panel will meet in Miami next week to discuss proposed rule changes for the Indian casino industry.

The House Committee on Natural Resources will hear testimony concerning federal regulators' efforts to distinguish Class II gambling devices from Class III slot machines. The proposed rule changes would affect Oklahoma and its tribes more than any other state.

U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, requested the field hearing. Boren is a member of the Natural Resources Committee, as are Tom Cole, R-Moore, and Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma City.

The congressional hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Northeastern A&M College student ballroom.

Invitations have been sent to witnesses. However, their names won't be made public until they accept the invitations, said Boren's spokesman, Cole Perryman.

Indian gaming experts have said the vast majority of machines currently labeled Class II would become illegal in 2013 if the proposed regulations take effect.

At the end of 2006, Oklahoma tribes had 30,044 Class II machines. That represented 59 percent of all such machines in the country at tribe-owned locations.

The next-closest state, Florida, had 16 percent.

Oklahoma tribes also own more than half of the 160 Class II Indian gaming locations in the country, according to a study prepared for the National Indian Gaming Commission.

Class II was intended to be based on bingo. Technological advances have made most Class II machines virtually indistinguishable from Class III slot machines for average gamblers.

The state of Oklahoma receives 4 to 6 percent of tribes' revenue from Class III games, but nothing from Class II games.

Tribes paid the state $54.5 million from Class III machines in 2007. That money helps fund public education.