Choctaw added on in 2006, when it built a 100,000-square-foot casino and hotel. The tribe eventually paid off the contract to the management company and bought out the original Minnesota owners. We did it with blood, sweat, tears and hard work, and very committed people.” “I look back now and wonder how some days we even made it through,” Dillard said. It took a lot of hard work and seven-day workweeks, Dillard said. “We were just looking for a quick infusion of cash to get our tribe up and operable and stable so that we could service our members and we could begin to build a platform that we could thrive on,” Dillard said. That’s when the tribe turned to high-stakes bingo. Dillard said the Choctaw in those days operated “paycheck to paycheck,” and the managers sometimes worried about being able to pay employees. Choctaw had 100 employees working for the Choctaw Nation headquarters and was 90% dependent on the federal government. The Choctaw Nation used a Minnesota management company to own and operate the bingo palace and depended on its leadership in those early days, Dillard said. In 1987, the Choctaw Bingo Palace opened, filling 28,000 square feet of space and attracting Oklahomans and Texans. I knew that’s where I needed to be,” Dillard said.ĭillard says the tribe purchased the land from two sisters struggling to sell. Today she is Choctaw’s senior executive officer. In 1987, she became a floor manager for the Choctaw Bingo Palace. The casino also hosted bowling and bingo, a nod to its beginnings.ĭillard began working for the tribe in 1982. This month, Choctaw gave away $2 million in cash and offered a special anniversary hotel rate. After 35 years of gaming, Choctaw Casinos and Resorts is celebrating its anniversary in southeastern Oklahoma. Eventually, it started to dabble in casino gaming.Ī lot has changed since then for that bingo hall. “We built high-stakes bingo,” Dillard said, basically because that’s all the tribe could afford.

Some folks may not remember the bingo hall that once stood in southeastern Oklahoma 35 years ago. Alexandra Skores, The Dallas Morning News

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