Oregon Casinos and Gambling

Short Summary:  This page looks at the different forms of gambling in the State of Oregon, discusses the legality of online gambling and gives a detailed listing of all of the Tribal casinos in the state.

The Pacific Northwest might not be the first spot that comes to mind when looking for a gambling destination, but Oregonians have it pretty good up there, all things considered.

Getting the bad news out of the way first, as of the time of this writing, Oregon does not allow for Internet gambling that is licensed and regulated through the state.  In fact, while Oregon is generally more-or-less reasonably progressive when it comes to gambling; there is not even an online casino regulation bill in the pipeline as of June, 2020.

The State of Oregon categorizes unlawful gambling as follows:

(1)A person commits the crime of unlawful gambling in the second degree if the person knowingly:

(a)Places a bet with a bookmaker; or

(b)Participates or engages in unlawful gambling as a player.

(2)Unlawful gambling in the second degree is a Class A misdemeanor. [1971 c.743 §264; 1997 c.867 §21]

Therefore, any form of gambling that is not specifically legalized and regulated by the state constitutes, “Unlawful Gambling.”  Oregon was quick to point out that this even applies to players in online gambling, or any form of unlawful gambling, who can theoretically be charged with a Class A Misdemeanor.

Of course, we say, “Theoretically,” because we could not find any instance of someone gambling online in the capacity of a player and actually being charged with anything.  The State of Oregon would almost certainly have no interest if you were accessing an offshore online casino from the privacy of your own home, but it is important to keep in mind that charges are theoretically possible.

Certain online casinos will not operate in states that specifically make Internet gambling illegal for players, but Oregonians should find no shortage of overseas sites willing to accept their action, all things considered.  Generally speaking, the most reputable online casinos (such as Bovada) will only specifically avoid states in which online gambling is licensed and regulated by the state itself…this may possibly with an eye towards entering the regulated U.S. marketplace one day if enough states get on board.  Other online casinos located offshore really don’t seem to care where they operate.

Top 4 United States: Oregon Casino Sites

1	Vegas Casino Online	100% ما يصل إلى $11,000 إنشاء حساب	اقرأ المُراجعة العب يقبل لاعبي
2	Shazam Casino	250% ما يصل إلى ∞	العب يقبل لاعبي
3	Bovada Casino	125% ما يصل إلى $1,250	اقرأ المُراجعة العب يقبل لاعبي
4	Lucky Tiger Casino	300% ما يصل إلى $3,000 إنشاء حساب	العب يقبل لاعبي

Charitable Gambling

Oregon has some fairly unrestrictive laws when it comes to Charitable Gambling, compared to other states.  The forms of Charitable Gambling permitted by the state include bingo, raffles and Monte Carlo (casino) nights.  Let’s do a quick breakdown of some of the rules according to the state website.

Most relevantly, who can conduct these gambling activities:

Only organizations exempt from paying federal income taxes may conduct charitable gaming events in Oregon. This includes public agencies and public schools. Private organizations qualify if they are active nonprofits. An organization must have held tax-exempt status for at least one year and been engaged in its charitable, fraternal or religious purpose during that time.

In other words, pretty much anyone who is not a private and for-profit enterprise.  Private organizations may be asked to prove non-profit status, but all non-for-profit public entities may conduct these forms of gambling.

However, it should be noted that the Monte Carlo nights in Oregon differ from some other states in that cash cannot be won.  Instead, imitation money or chips can be purchased on direct and then exchanged for various prizes.  In many cases, the way this will happen is that folks will pay a fee for admission and then get some of these chips that they can go play at their game of choice.  Again, from the source above:

With Monte Carlo, players compete against the house on contests of chance using purchased imitation money. The event encompasses casino-style gambling, using cards, dice and roulette wheels. Players wager and win imitation money, chips, or tokens, and no cash is wagered or won. Players may exchange imitation money for non-cash prizes or use it for a chance to “purchase” prizes at an auction.

Again, this differs from other states, Michigan being one example, where players can actually win and lose real money on Monte Carlo nights.  If there’s one advantage to the non-profit in this scenario, however, it’s that game protection/security isn’t really as much of an issue since the players are playing with, “Funny Money,” anyway.  This enables them to be more liberal with payouts and not quite as concerned with proper dealer procedures.

Interestingly, the state DOES allow for charitable Texas Hold ‘Em at these Monte Carlo nights where real money CAN be won or lost, but it sets a strict limit of $500 maximum, per player, on all poker activities in one day at one event:

Texas Hold’em is a type of poker game. Oregon law allows for the use of this and similar games at Monte Carlo fundraising event. With Texas Hold’em, players are limited to spending no more than $500. This limit includes the original buy-in, as well as all “add-ons” and “re-buys”. Licensees are expected to have a system in place which will adequately track player spending to ensure that no one is allowed to violate the $500 limit. If a licensee charges guests a fee to attend their fundraising event in addition to the buy-in for Texas Hold’em, the licensee must describe what, in addition to the Texas Hold’em tournament, the player is receiving for the additional fee.

As with traditional Monte Carlo events, a license is required for any single Texas Hold’em event where the sale of scrip is expected to exceed $2,000, and/or for any organization which intends to raise more than $5,000 from its sale of scrip from multiple events within any calendar year. Monte Carlo license applications are available online or can be mailed to you upon request.

In other words, an organization who wishes to conduct Texas Hold ‘Em is going to need to be licensed (as with other organizations) if they anticipate more than $2,000 in revenue during an individual event, or if they anticipate more than $5,000 in revenues within a calendar year.

Our assumption is that these limits are put in place so that smaller organizations doing, “One-off,” type things such as basic 50/50 raffles do not necessarily need to be licensed.  In fact, the website does provide us with specific licensing exemptions:

Generally, all nonprofit organizations wishing to operate bingo, raffle and Monte Carlo events are required to have licenses issued by the Oregon DOJ. Following are the only three exceptions:

1.) Nonprofit organizations operating bingo games with a handle of no more than $2,000 per session and with a total handle of no more than $5,000 per calendar year.

2.) Nonprofit organizations holding raffles with a cumulative handle of no more than $10,000 per calendar year.

3.) Nonprofit organizations holding Monte Carlo events with a handle of no more than $2,000 per Monte Carlo event and a total handle of no more than $5,000 per calendar year.

And, again, the idea is that there is no need for an entity who only rarely holds events for small sums to be licensed.  Any entity that would pay for the licensing, as a result, would be planning to use these Charitable Gambling events as a significant source of revenue.

Licensing fees can range from as little as $20 to as much as $300, annually, with a breakdown of the licensing costs that you can find here.

Oregon is more liberal on licensing in some ways than other states because they do not have a specific percentage of revenue that must be paid to the state.  Instead, they simply require quarterly and annual reporting with licensing fees changing depending on how much in handle the organization brings in within a given year.

Overall, Oregon is one of the friendlier states for Charitable Gambling, perhaps with the only exception being that Monte Carlo nights cannot be for actual cash.  Aside from that, they allow a good bit of various types of gambling, the licensing fees are more than fairly priced and it seems like the non-profit entities can basically do what they like.

Social Gambling

Similarly, Oregon is pretty lax on social gambling law, based on the same source of information provided in the link above, which states:

A “social game” is one in which all the money wagered is returned to the players in the form of prizes. The house cannot take a “cut” or percentage of the money or otherwise profit in any manner from the operation of a game. Social games in businesses, private clubs, or places of public accommodation can be conducted only if there is an enabling ordinance (usually a social gaming ordinance) by the local jurisdiction. Social games that are conducted in private residences are permissible.

Let’s break this down:

At Home-Anything goes, per the state, provided that all of the money is returned to players and there is no house edge (or fee) of any kind.  In fact, there technically could be a house edge as long as any money wagered ultimately ends up going, in full, back to the players at the end of the night.

Other Entities-For businesses, private clubs and places of employment, the State of Oregon essentially tosses the issue to the applicable local jurisdictions.  For that reason, any enforcement of unlawful gambling taking place at these entities would also be left up to the jurisdiction in question.  The only thing the state itself speaks to, in this regard, is the basic fact that all money still needs to be returned to players.

Overall, these laws are pretty loose as it does give the local authorities the option of allowing for social gambling more than just in peoples’ houses.  The state always allows for such activity to take place, and while that is true more often than not; there are a few states that don’t.

Oregon Lottery

The State of Oregon is home to the Oregon Lottery, which itself is a participant in the national super jackpot Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries.  While more states than not are home to some sort of lottery; there are a few that aren’t, one example-perhaps counterintuitively-being Nevada!

For this section of our page, we are going to take a look at the most recent Oregon Lottery Annual Report, which can be found here.

The Fiscal Year for the Oregon Lottery ends in June, so this is for the Fiscal Year ending in June of 2019.  These reports usually come out in December, so this will be the most recent information available on the Oregon Lottery for some amount of time.

From Page 15 of the pdf, we get the following information on sales:

Video Lottery-$966,474,906 (71.71%)

Draw Game-$248,814,126 (18.46%)

Scratchers: $131,236,973 (9.74%)

Other (?): $1,210,580 (.09%)

TOTAL SALES: $1,347,736,585

Some of our readers might be unfamiliar with the term, “Video Lottery,” even though it is-by far-the sales leader for the Oregon Lottery.  Similarly to states such as Montana, West Virginia and Illinois, the State of Oregon allows certain retailers to be licensed to offer video-lottery machines that are similar to slot machines and are termed, “Vegas style.”  These entities will generally be limited to how many machines they can house and in the case of Oregon specifically, the percentage of the entity’s revenues to be paid to the state are based on annual revenues.

The State of Oregon, unfortunately, does not break down the prizes for each type of lottery game.  Instead, they choose to do a report that I find somewhat deceptive by listing prizes altogether as one line item.  If I had to guess, it’s because they don’t want people knowing how poor the drawing and scratch-off games are.

The good news is that we can cut through this chicanery pretty easily because the lottery does list gross proceeds of the video lottery (profits are above) as a separate line item, which means the total amount of money wagered.  From Page 52 of the pdf, we know that amount is $12,615,150,537.

Now, if we subtract from that the amount that the lottery held, we know:

12615150537-966474906 = 11648675631

Was the amount paid out in video lottery prizes specifically, therefore resulting in a video lottery return to player of 0.9233877627408926 which is about 92.34%, pretty good.

We also know that TOTAL lottery prizes were:

11,883,643,141, so if we subtract the amount that related to video lottery prizes, then we can discover that the total amount of ALL other prizes paid out was $234,967,510.

With that number, we can now add the contributions (sales) of the other forms of lottery together to determine a total return based upon what went out in prizes:

234967510/(248814126+131236973+1210580) = 0.6162893438865646

In other words, all of the other lottery games (drawing, scratcher, keno and “Other”) combined to result in a return to player of 61.63% on all forms of lottery that are not video lottery.

Naturally, this tells us what we already know: Scratchers and Drawing games are terrible and nobody should ever play them.  Based on what we know from other state lotteries, this (already low) percentage return to player is probably supported by scratchers + keno coming somewhere in the high-60% to low-70% range while the drawing type games are in the low-50%’s somewhere.

With that, if you’re in Oregon and you want to support the State Lottery, going to one of the parlors is not a terrible bet and the returns of the machines from the Tribal Casinos are probably right about in the same ballpark, as far as percentage goes.

Lest we forget, if we take the total lottery net revenues (Page 52) of $1,111,598,495 and a population of about 4,218,000, then we see a result of about $263.54/resident in lottery revenues.  This amount is considerably higher than in many other states, which proves one thing that I have always said:

If you give people convenience gambling at a reasonable return, your lottery department will make more money!!!

With that, let’s discuss the parimutuel situation in the State of Oregon:

Oregon Parimutuel Wagering

The State of Oregon allows for parimutuel betting to be made on both live and simulcast wagering on both horses, and unfortunately, greyhounds.  The good news when it comes to the dogs is, according to Grey2k:

Dog racing is legal in the State of Oregon, but as a practical matter, there are not any dog racing tracks.  Alabama is a recent addition to this list as the last remaining dog track in the state (that they could have kept alive with video lottery, but I won’t complain too much) has recently closed.

Arkansas is also in the process of phasing out Greyhound racing, but still has it currently, so we have the following situation:

Dog Racing Illegal: 41 States

Dog Racing Legal (No Tracks): 5 States

Dog Racing Legal, Active Tracks: 4 States

However, Arkansas will be moving to one of the other two categories shortly.  If I had to guess, of Arkansas, Iowa, Texas and West Virginia, either Texas or West Virginia will be the last to phase out greyhound racing.  For whatever reason, the West Virginia State Legislature (and various Governors) are determined to keep it even though almost all of the owner/breeders are from out of state and the two casinos that host live dog racing lose money on those operations.

In other words, it’s only a matter of time.

All of that said, we will take a look at the individual horse tracks later on this page.

Tribal Casinos

The State of Oregon is home to a few different Native American Tribes and works, by compact, with them to offer Tribal Casinos.  The most recent compacts allow for both Class II and certain types of Class III gaming, with the latter referring to table games and slot machines that are operated with independent Random Number Generators (RNG’s) as opposed to Class II machines that function as either electronic bingo or virtual pull tab machines.

One of the compacts is between the State of Oregon and the Siletz Indians of Oregon, so let’s look to it for some interesting information that will also generally apply to other Class III compacts in the state.

Keeping in mind that this is a pdf of the 1999 compact and certainly some table games have been added (which we will look at specifically in the casino’s section) this is generally the scope of the Class III Tribal Gaming permitted in the state, from Page 14:

Subject to the provisions of this Compact, the Tribe may engage in the following Class III games: Video lottery games of chance, keno, off-race course mutuel wagering, blackjack, craps, roulette, pai-gow poker, Caribbean stud poker, let-it-ride, and big 6 wheel, as described in the Appendix. No wagers may be placed or accepted via the internet or by any telecommunications system or device, except to accomplish off-race course mutuel wagering as permitted by state law except as provided in subsection 4(B)4.

As of the time of the compact, those were the permitted wagers.  Off-Race course mutuel wagering is more commonly known as, “Simulcast Wagering,” so that is what that particular verbiage refers to.  Keno refers specifically to Live Keno as video keno would be covered under, “Video lottery games of chance.”

One kind of amusing bonus for anyone who ever doubted that many states to defer to Nevada for their gaming laws is the fact that Oregon specifically authorizes the Native American casinos to host any Class III game that has been approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission:

Subject to, and in compliance with, the provisions of this Compact, the Tribe may, subject to the provisions of Section 4.D., engage in any other Page 15 -Siletz/Oregon Class III Gaming Compact 9/03/99 AGS02817 Class III gaming activity that has been approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission or by an Indian tribe with an approved Class III Compact in the State in which the tribe conducts a gaming operation, provided, that for an Indian approved game, certification from the State where such Tribe conducts gaming that such game is permissible under IGRA shall be provided, and Oregon State Police review and approval shall be required. Operation of any game under this paragraph must be pursuant to rules, procedures and internal controls for the new game at least as stringent as the Tribal/State Minimum Internal Control Standards set forth in the Appendix to this Compact and, where appropriate, subject to new MICS developed and approved by both the Tribal Gaming Commission and Oregon State Police.

In other words, the State of Oregon just kinds of looks at Nevada and says, “Those guys seem to know what they’re doing, let’s just go with whatever they say is cool.”

The next several pages go over the list of permitted games as well as the number of specific Class III VLT’s as well as Table Games that may operate at the specific location, you can look at that if you want, but it’s probably going to be different for all of them.

Pursuant to Federal Laws, the State of Oregon has no bearing on Class II Gaming (Live Bingo, electronic bingo, Class II electronic bingo) whatsoever:

Status of Class II Gaming. Nothing in this Compact shall be deemed to affect the operation by the Tribe of any Class II gaming as defined in IGRA or to confer upon the State any jurisdiction over such Class II gaming conducted by the Tribe.

The most recent report on Tribal Gambling in the State of Oregon was a biannual report for the years 2016 and 2017, so let’s grab some information from it.

Page 2 of the report provides us some nice bullet points:

• Tribal gaming directly and indirectly supported 11,262 jobs statewide earning $550.6 million in wages, benefits, and self-employment earnings.
• Tribal gaming indirectly supported businesses and governments in Oregon by an amount totaling $760.3 million in output—not counting what the tribes made.
• Their impacts included $27.7 million in taxes and fees for the state of Oregon, $17.7 million in local government taxes and fees, and $88.9 million in federal taxes.
• Tribal casinos generated $499.3 million in gaming revenues and spent $14 million on regulation. Tribes paid $1.5 million to the Oregon State Police and almost $300,000 to federal gaming regulators.
• Including their hotels, restaurants, and other amenities, revenues at tribal gaming businesses were $602.4 million. From that, they provided $131.5 million to their tribes; much of it paying for member healthcare, education, and housing.
• Tribal casinos donated and granted $8.6 million to local charities in 2017 and $134.1 million since 1992—the year the first casino opened in Oregon.
• Their casinos sold over 427,746 room nights to guests visiting the rural Oregon communities where their hotels are located.
• While successful, the growing dominance and competitive advantages of the Oregon Lottery eroded the market share of tribal casinos, which fell to its lowest point in over 20 years.

The first thing that we notice is that the State of Oregon collected 27.7 million dollars in taxes and fees over the relevant period, though the last bullet point states that Tribal Casinos do not have the market share that they once did owing mostly to the Oregon Lottery.  If you go back and look at the Oregon Lottery’s revenue from video lottery above, it’s probably fair to say that the state is less than concerned with Tribal revenues because Oregon Video Lottery is making an absolute killing.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Oregon Video Lottery (as with states such as West Virginia, Montana and Illinois) epitomize the notion of convenience gambling, so if your goal is just to play some slot machine games and you’re not extremely picky about it…why take a trip to the casino when you can just walk right up the street?

Unfortunately, the tribes are an unwitting victim in all of this because the surrounding localities no longer need to make a drive just to get their gambling fix.  Granted, the tribes still represent the entire market for table games in the state, but as we know, your average gambler just wants a decent machine to play….and the Oregon Video Lottery returns of roughly 92% are as good statewide as you’ll find for low-risk machines just about anywhere, except online, of course.

The result is that the Tribal Casinos basically have to market to people who are generally there for more destination-related reasons, which probably also means more aggressive comps despite the fact that their revenue is already falling.  If the State of Oregon went the next step (if/when the compacts allow, or decided to void the compacts altogether) and go with full-on Commercial Casinos, it would probably be a death sentence for a few of the tribal properties.

This report also includes a convenient breakdown of the gaming operations for the state’s nine still-extant casinos:

Comparatively, there are well over 10,000 total Oregon State licensed video lottery terminals and over 3,000 Oregon State Lottery Keno vendors spread throughout more than 3,000 (albeit much smaller) locations throughout the state.  In the meantime, there are more than 2,000 locations spread throughout the state offering Oregon Video Lottery.

That fact probably hurts the smaller of the Indian casinos more than it does the destination-type ones with hotels because the smaller casinos were basically marketing themselves just on being slothouses.

In fact, two of the smaller Indian Casinos (not listed above) have closed in recent years, Kah-Nee-Ta, which closed completely in September, 2018 and ceased all casino operations in 2011; as well as Old Camp Casino, having closed all operations at once in 2012.  Old Camp closed its few table operations and poker tables in 2006, but that’s just because they weren’t profitable as the Video Lottery wouldn’t really have any great impact on those.

All told, the Indian Casinos in the state are geographically somewhat isolated, where the State Lottery can essentially authorize a few video lottery terminals to basically whoever wants them.  More than that, it’s pretty tough for the tribal casinos to offer better electronic games because the nearly 92% returns offered by the Oregon State Lottery are actually pretty good for slots and video keno.

In any case, the two have always co-existed and will likely always co-exist in some capacity.  The only possible event that would spell disaster for the Tribal Casinos (other than increased regional, though out-of-state competition) would be if Oregon went full steam ahead with its own licensed and regulated Commercial Casinos.

Land Casinos In Oregon

Oregon State Lottery VLT Locations:

We just want to quickly remind readers that, similar to Illinois, West Virginia and Montana, the State of Oregon does authorize lottery retailers to become licensed for State Lottery video terminals.  These terminals are spread throughout more than 2,000 locations in the state, so it would be nearly impossible to list them all.

What we do know is that one of the most widespread chains of these retailers is known as, “Dotty’s,” with roughly 175 locations throughout the state.

Racetracks in Oregon

Portland Meadows-Portland Meadows WAS the state’s last location fully dedicated to horse racing, unfortunately it closed in 2019.  Demolition on the main building of the property began in February of 2020.  As a result, the only remaining live horse racing areas in Oregon are connected to County Fairgrounds of one type or another.

Fairground Racing

Grants Pass-Grants Pass is located at the Josephine County Fairgrounds and conducts live racing from May-November every year.  Typically, this takes place on weekends during the Summer and Sunday/Monday during the later parts of the year.  Early racing was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic for 2020 and racing is scheduled to begin June 20th, as of the time of this writing.

Crook County Fairgrounds-This fairgrounds usually has one weekend meet per year, but the races scheduled for 2020 have been canceled due to Covid-19.

Tillamook County Fairgrounds-There is usually some live horse racing associated with the County Fair, but unfortunately, the County Fair for 2020 has been canceled.  Can you guess why?

In summary, Oregon no longer has any properties devoted exclusively to horse racing, however, they typically run at Grants Pass several days per year.  If you’re a horse racing enthusiast, hopefully it’s close enough and there’s enough going on there to satisfy you.

There are a number of simulcast wagering facilities sprinkled throughout the State of Oregon.  It looks like about ten in total that can be found on the right side of this page.

Of course, horse racing simulcast wagering is not the primary function of any of them.

Tribal Casinos in Oregon

It’s finally time for the fun stuff!  The first thing that we will do is take our table from above with counts on the different forms of gambling that are at each of the casinos.  If their website says anything to the contrary, we will keep the official information that we have above, but will also include what their website says as they may have gotten new machines, or decommissioned old ones, within the last few years.

Chinook Winds

Located in Lincoln City, Oregon and owned and operated by Confederated Tribes of Siletz, the Chinook Winds Casino and Convention Center is the third-largest casino property in the state, by slot count.  Further, it has the most bingo seating of any casino in the state, is one of only four total casinos with live poker, and houses the second-most table games.

Coming in at 157,000 square feet, the gambling floor is sprawling and leaves plenty of space for people to work their way around.

As with so many Native American casinos, this one is designed to have something for the whole family.  In addition to the casino itself, the property is home to a golf course, an arcade, a sizeable fitness center, a swimming pool, spa, sauna and complimentary wireless internet for hotel guests.

The table games that Chinook Winds lists on its website are Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Roulette, Craps, Let It Ride, Pai-Gow Poker and Three-Card Poker.  The four-table poker room regularly features promotions and tournaments that are available on their website.

There is a slight discrepancy between the table above and the casino’s website in that the website says they have, “Over 1100,” total machines.  These include slots, video poker and video keno all ranging in denomination from $0.01 to $100.

Additionally, Chinook Winds advertises that they have a sports wagering lounge, which is probably just a bar that they already had that has been converted to also be able to take betting action.  There’s a Keno counter rather that a dedicated Keno room, but the property does have, “Keno runners,” go through the buffet, lounge and dining room for those who want to sit around and play Keno.

Chinook Winds is home to a number of dining establishments including Aces Sports Bar & Grill, Chinook’s Lounge (basically a bar with appetizers), Chinook’s Seafood Grill, Double Down Coffee and Espresso (coffeeshop), Euchre Creek Deli (sandwiches and quick eats), Rogue River Steakhouse, the upscale-casual joint, Rogue River Lounge (another bar serving appetizers) and the property’s buffet is called Siletz Bay Buffet.

Most of the shows for 2020 have been cancelled as a result of COVID-19, but generally, the property features a number of national acts and there is often live entertainment on weekends at one or more lounges, but it’s tough to say whether or not that will happen this year.

Overall, this is a basic casino resort property that is pretty comparable to several others.  One thing that it has going for it is a gorgeous waterfront location and plenty of activities for the kids, making this an ideal destination to kill a weekend.  We would probably recommend this casino to stay & play if you’re going to be in that area of the country anyway, but it falls just a little bit short of being a destination unto itself, unless you already live somewhere in the Northwest.

Indian Head Casino

The Indian Head Casino is located in Warm Springs, Oregon and is owned and operated by the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.  We had mentioned before that Kah-Nee-Ta Casino had closed, and when it did, it was basically a merger of operations into Indian Head Casino given the accessibility of this property compared to the other.  This property opened in 2012 and has about 18,000 square feet of gaming space.

Contrary to the report above, it seems that Indian Head Casino has eight gaming tables, all of which are Blackjack.  It seems that 500 total slot, video poker and video keno machines are a close enough approximation.

The property is home to two dining establishments, the first of these is Cottonwood Restaurant, a casual joint serving all three.  The second is another casual place called Tule Grill, good for sandwiches and quick bites.

Kla-Mo-Ya Casino

Located in Chiloquin, Oregon, the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino is an abbreviated version of the three tribes who have an interest in the property: Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin tribes.

Their website lists that they have more than 350 video poker, video keno and slot machines ranging in denomination from pennies to dollars.  The only table game spread at the property is Blackjack, which is closed on Monday/Tuesday with varying hours the rest of the week.  As of the time of this writing, Blackjack is completely closed due to COVID-19, so you can check our their website to see if/when that will ever change.

The only dining establishment on the property is the casual Peak to Peak Restaurant that is open daily and serves all three.  There is also a lounge on the property.

The property is home to a Sleep Inn hotel which falls under the Choice Hotels umbrella.  Amenities currently include wireless internet because breakfast, the pool and the fitness center are all closed until further notice due to COVID-19, so you can check the website or call them to see if that is still the case.  In fact, as of the specific time of this writing, the hotel is completely closed, but it does plan to reopen in the relatively near future.

Seven Feathers Casino Resort

The Seven Feathers Casino Resort is located in Canyonville, Oregon, is owned and operated by Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, and comes in at a sprawling 68,000 square feet of gaming space.  Of course, the bingo room accounts for a large amount of this square footage.

The property’s hotel consists of 298 guest rooms and suites and is a AAA Diamond property.  Amenities include wireless internet, an indoor heated pool, River Rock Spa, hot tubs and saunas.  Additionally, the property is home to a fitness center, video arcade and complimentary business center for anyone who needs to work while they play.  Not only do they have the kids covered, but many of their rooms are also pet friendly, so you can bring the family dog, as well.  In addition to the sizable hotel, the property is home to an RV Park.

The property is home to 950 combined slots, video poker and video keno games.  We’re also going to say hats off to them because they keep a full list of all of their machine offerings, in pdf link form, on their website.

So, if you’re looking for a specific title, you won’t have to look any further than their site!

Table games include Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, Ultimate Texas Hold ’Em, Three and Four Card Poker, Fortune Pai Gow Poker and Baccarat.  According to their website, they have the only live Baccarat table in the entire State of Oregon.

The property runs a live Keno game 24/7 and has a number of locations to pick up your tickets, as well as a Keno kiosk that is also staffed 24/7.  The property also has a sizeable live bingo room, after all, the whole thing started as a simple bingo hall!  As of the time of this writing, June 2020, Bingo is suspended due to COVID-19, but there are events for June listed…so we assume Bingo is returning in the very near future.  We do recommend calling the property ahead if you want to be absolutely sure.

There are a number of concert events throughout the year that consists of huge acts from the past, more than that, Elements Lounge often features live entertainment on weekends.

The property is home to a number of dining establishments including Steelhead Lounge, K-Bar Steakhouse, The Gathering Place Buffet, Cow Creek Restaurant (American, all three meals every day), Stix Sports Bar and Cabi Cafe for your java needs.

Overall, this is about on par with Chinook Winds, except the hotel is a little more upscale, it does not have golf, and Chinook Winds theoretically has live poker whereas this casino doesn’t.  If none of those three things are a huge priority for you, it’s basically six of one and a half dozen of the other.  Not a destination resort unto itself, but definitely a place worth staying for several days if you’re going to be in the area (or are from that general region) anyway.

Spirit Mountain Casino

Located in Grand Ronde, Oregon and owned and operated by Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, the Spirit Mountain Casino has the largest slot count in the entire state.  Additionally, the property features a hotel consisting of 254 guest rooms and suites.  In normal years, which 2020 will not be, this property pulls in excess of three million visitors annually.  The gaming floor consists of 90,000 square feet of gambling space making it one of the largest, though not THE largest, in the region.

The hotel has a bit of a rustic design and makes available wireless internet as well as mini-fridges to all of its guests.  Additionally, the property is home to an RV Park and has an arcade for the whole family to enjoy.  Please keep in mind that this is not a pet-friendly hotel, so unless you’re travelling with a service animal (in which event, they have no other choice) you will not be able to bring your animal along for this trip.

There is nothing that would indicate that the slot, video poker and video keno machine count is remarkably different from the table above, and the property has a full list of all titles available on its website.

Table Games include Blackjack, Craps, Let it Ride, Pai Gow Poker, Roulette, Three-Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em.  The website does not offer a specific table count, so there is no reason to think that would be any different from the table above.  The poker room consists of nine tables with daily promotions and tournaments, however, there is no poker as of the time of this writing due to COVID-19, we recommend calling if you want to see if/when poker has resumed operations.  When poker does operate, there have daily promotions and tournaments.

Keno operates daily and, in addition to the Keno counter, there are a number of places available throughout the property to get a ticket.  Their website says that they have a $50,000 maximum aggregate payout for all keno games, so if you’re going for any of the long shot pays, make sure to size your bets accordingly or you are losing value.

Perhaps surprisingly for a property of this size, not counting the coffee shop near the hotel, there are only four dining venues including: Cedar Plank Buffet, Legends Restaurant (Casual), Summit View Lounge (similar to a sports bar, quick bites) and Mountain View Sports Bar.

That’s it in a nutshell, so it’s a good place to spend the weekend if you’re from the region or heading to that area of the country anyway.  It doesn’t have quite as much as a few of the Tribal Casinos in Oregon, but unless you’re really going to miss bingo, there’s not much elsewhere that cannot be found at this property.

The Mill Casino

The Mill Casino, Hotel and RV Park is located in North Bend, Oregon and is owned and operated by The Coquille Tribe.  One interesting fact about Bend, Oregon, is that (as of the time of this writing) it is home to the last Blockbuster Video store located on the planet…so that’s going to be a blast from the past for a great many people if you want to check that out.

Amenities at the pet-friendly hotel include a pool and spa, fitness center, business area and an RV Park for those touring the nation that way.  The hotel consists of a total of 203 combined guest rooms and suites.

The gaming floor is home to 700 slots, according to their website, which doesn’t differ too much from the total we have in the table above.  Table games include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Spanish 21, Three-Card Poker and Pai-Gow Poker.

The Mill Casino is not home to a sportsbook, exactly, but they do have several kiosks throughout the property where patrons may place their bets and cash out winning tickets at the casino cage.

The property features a number of dining options, including: Plank House Restaurant is kind of upscale casual and overlooks the water, the property’s buffet is known as The Saw Blade Buffet, Warehouse 101 is a casual sports bar type of environment, Whitecaps is the place for casual small entrees, appetizers and quick bites (and also has some gaming machines inside) and Timbers Cafe is your ultra-quick stop for grab n’ go food, but also has some seating.

Under normal conditions, there would be a number of different events throughout the year available on the property’s website, as well as occasional live entertainment at Warehouse 101.  Coronavirus kind of threw a wrench in that, so we will just have to recommend checking their website periodically if that’s what you’re looking for.

Overall, The Mill Casino reads like a, ‘Staycation,’ type of casino not unlike similarly sized casinos (both Tribal and Commercial) located throughout the country.  Unlike some of those casinos, this one actually has a rustic and outdoorsy theme that pervades throughout, so definitely a neat little place to weekend if you happen to be in the area.  We should mention that there is no live poker, keno or bingo here…so if those are chief amongst your priorities, you would want to look into the other listings.

Three Rivers Casino

Not to be confused with Rivers Casinos, Three Rivers Casino is located in Florence, Oregon and is operated and owned by the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, & Siuslaw Indians.  This property is mostly a locals and regional staycation spot and has a hotel consisting of a modest 93 rooms.

All hotel guests will enjoy having a fridge and microwave in the room as well as complimentary access to wireless internet.  Please keep in mind, however, that this property is NOT a pet-friendly hotel.  Having opened in 2007, the hotel is fairly reasonably new, by hotel standards, but is mostly a no-frills type of staycation spot.  RV Parking is also available.

Aside from listing a few of their newer slots, the property’s website doesn’t really have much to say about their slot machines, so we will assume that the information in the table above is generally correct…it’s all been pretty close so far.

Table Games include Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Let it Ride, Pai-Gow Poker, Three Card Poker, Super Shot 21 and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em.  Please keep in mind, as of the time of this writing, Craps is NOT being offered due to COVID-19, so we recommend either calling or checking their website for yourself if that game is really important to you.

There’s a sizable Bingo room on the property, but the only days listed for Bingo, as of the time of this writing, are Mondays and Wednesdays.  If Bingo availability is chief amongst your concerns for a casino, definitely something you’ll want to keep in mind and maybe call ahead for more specific information.

Generally speaking, poker is available at the property Thursday-Sunday, but is closed as of the time of this writing due to the Coronavirus.  We recommend checking their website or calling ahead to determine if poker has reopened.

Live Keno is available 24/7 with a number of locations where staff will take care of all of your ticket needs in addition to the Keno kiosk.  You can also follow the action from your room, or anywhere, really, because the property’s website has a live Keno attachment that keeps you posted on the current drawing.

I’ll say it: That’s just awesome.

The property is home to a few dining establishments including: Bonfire (steakhouse Thurs.-Sun), The Blue Bills Sports Bar and Tap Room and a food court featuring Mamma Mia (pizza), The 101 Burger Bar and Coastal Roasters Coffee Shop.

All things considered, it’s a pretty cool staycation spot with a few dining options and everything most people could want out of a casino.  If you’re Regional as it is, or you’re going to be in the area, it’s probably worth taking a look around and perhaps spending a few days.

Three Rivers Coos Bay Casino

Three Rivers Coos Bay Casino is located in Coos Bay, Oregon and is operated and owned by the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, & Siuslaw Indians.

Basically, the Coos Bay property is just a little slothouse consisting of 250 video poker, video keno and slot machines.  Cafe 1297 is a little casual American place that is the property’s only eatery.

Wildhorse Resort Casino

Wildhorse Casino is the second-largest casino in the state by machine count, is located in Pendelton, (Umatilla County) Oregon and is owned and operated since 1994 by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

In addition to the obligatory RV Park, the hotel boasts roughly 300 rooms with amenities including wireless internet access, business center, fitness center, indoor pool, outdoor pool and dry sauna.  Covid-19 is impacting the availability of many of these amenities as of the time of this writing, so we recommend checking their website for updates or calling ahead for more specifics.

The casino floor is home to more than 1,200 slots, according to their website, which agrees with our above table.  Unfortunately, their website doesn’t offer much else in the way of specifics on the video slots, video poker and video keno games.

The poker room consists of four tables and, as of the time of this writing, features weekly tournaments.  They usually also have a few multi-day tournament events every year, however, the Spring 2020 event was cancelled due to Coronavirus.  They are planning to go ahead with the August event as of the time of this writing.

Table Games include Blackjack, Spanish 21, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Pai-Gow Poker, Three-Card Poker, Roulette and Craps.  Wildhorse is also the only website to list regular Blackjack tournaments, the first and third Mondays of every month, with $500 in added money to every tournament as of the time of this writing.

Live Keno runs during select hours every day of the week and, in addition to the main cage and keno desk, there are a few self-serve kiosks and keno employees running around select areas of the casino to take care of getting your tickets for you.

Wildhorse is home to a Bingo room and we recommend checking their website for details as days, events and times can often differ.

If you’re tired of gambling, then go see a movie!  They have Cineplex movie theaters on site.

The property is home to several eateries with Plateau (fine dining and steakhouse) being the most upscale, other eateries include: Traditions Dining (this is the property’s buffet which also serves breakfast on weekends), Wildhorse Sports Bar, Hot Rock Cafe (casual, all-day breakfast menu), Wild Roast Coffee & Deli, and Clubhouse Bar and Grill (mainly for the golf course patrons).

Unless you’re specifically looking to play Baccarat, this casino resort basically has everything that anyone else in the state has and is a great location for a staycation, travelling across the nation or if you’re in the area.  While the offerings of this property compare favorably against all of the other Native American casinos in the state, we can’t really recommend it as a destination unto itself.  However, if you’re in the Region (or visiting for other reasons) this property is definitely worth a look.

Slot Machine Ownership

If you live in Oregon you can own antique slot machines that are at least 25 years old.

Poker

Through an interesting twist to the laws in Oregon, you can find many places to play poker. Local jurisdictions can legalize social gaming locations as long as the location doesn’t profit from the game.

This has led to poker games being widely available throughout most of the state.

Oregon poker players also can play at one of the few online poker sites that accept United States players. Online poker is a gray area, so if you have any questions about the legality check with a local attorney before playing for real money. I know plenty of people who play online, but it’s difficult to get a straight answer about if it’s legal or not.

Conclusion

Overall, despite the absence of Commercial Casinos and legalized and regulated online gambling, the State of Oregon has everything that you could ever want.

Eventually, we would expect that most states will ultimately legalize/regulate online gambling, but that’s going to be a bit more of a chore for Oregon as it has no Commercial Casinos to tie it to and all of the Native American casinos seem to be basically self-run.  In other words, whatever Oregon (if anything) decides to do with it, they’re not going to be able to follow the New Jersey model of tying it to a land casino.

We also don’t expect the Commercial Casino absence to change anytime soon because the state already has Video Lottery parlors and seems content enough to let the Tribal Casinos enjoy the monopoly on table games.

Besides that, most types of gambling can be found without going to the casinos considering people can do whatever they want at home as long as all money is returned to players.  Additionally, charitable gambling activities make it such that Bingo probably isn’t too hard for Oregon residents to find.  For most of them, I imagine visiting the casinos and playing table games is just a once in a while type of thing as opposed to the weekly (or even daily) visits people with casinos right on top of them make….and Oregonians are certainly spending no shortage of money at the VLT parlors.

Overall, it just seems like a pretty balanced status quo, so it doesn’t seem like there’s an immediate need for it to change.

References

• Oregon Lottery: Official Site
• Wikipedia: List of Casinos in Oregon