Greetings!

As I write this, the Okie Gambler website is a bare WordPress installation with a generic template. It’s like an apartment with no carpet or furniture. It will get better — slowly — over time. But meanwhile, I need a place to share what I know about gambling in Oklahoma and to hear from other Oklahoma gamblers about what they know. And to shoot the bull about it.

Why do Oklahomans need a gambling website?

Well, I think we do. We’ve got a great many Indian casinos, and (for better or worse) they’re becoming an important part of the cultural and social and economic lives of a lot of Oklahomans. And yet for some reason, getting good information about Oklahoma gambling on the internet is quite difficult. Casino web sites are frequently poor quality, and third-party sites about the gambling scene in this state are not numerous or up-to-date.

There’s also the issue of accountability. If a casino behaves badly — and sometimes they do — what is to be done? Casinos are theoretically in competition with each other, but if there’s no place for happy and unhappy customers to share stories, how is that competition to operate? I was surprised to discover that none of the casino-listing sites had much in the way of comments or user reviews. If The Okie Gambler can fill that void, I’d be quite satisfied.

What do I hope to see on The Okie Gambler?

My goal (and this will take a long time if it ever happens) is to build out the site until it contains basic information about all the casinos in the State of Oklahoma. The ones I gamble at will also have more detailed reviews, updated as things change. Plus, I expect (using links and blog posts) to consolidate for my own convenience the best web resources about Oklahoma gambling and the Indian casinos in this state. I also have opinions — strong ones — about my gambling experiences in Oklahoma; you’ll get to read those. And finally, I hope that others will find the site useful enough that they start sharing their local gambling experiences here as well.

Who Am I To Write About Gambling In Oklahoma?

I’m just a dude. I’m an Okie only by courtesy (haven’t been here long enough yet) but I live in the middle of the state in one of the zillions of little towns. I’m self-employed (self-underemployed?) and I share my life with Pixie (not her real name), who is a tribal member and family care-giver.

We like to go out gambling. Because there isn’t much extra money in our budget, we haunt promotions. We drive a lot, we gamble a little, we hoard our winnings and we cut our losses before they get too deep. Ultimately, we win more than we lose, but we tend to pay it back out on the back end for gasoline and vehicle wear-and-tear. Gambling, for us, ends up being cheap entertainment and “free” meals out (paid for by gambling winnings). It’s escapism — the best and cheapest we can find, living where we do and subject to the obligations we are laboring under.

Me? I play video poker when I can find it, slots otherwise. Pixie plays the penny slots, a lot harder than I do. Neither one of us are much for table games, or Keno, or bingo.