The new casino being built by the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma on Route 66 west of Chandler is still set to open around Spring 2026, according to Chairman Jacob Keyes.
The chairman and Billy Shepherd, general counsel for the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, were the guest speakers at the Chandler Area Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon on Jan. 14. There, they presented the plans for the casino and future hotel development, as well as answered questions by Chamber members.
Keyes said the gaming floor is expected to open in Spring 2026 and that timeline hasn’t changed since the $200 millionproject started about a year and a half ago.
“If anything we kind of start getting, we’ve had moments where we’re ahead of schedule and so we feel very confident that probably second quarter of ‘26 is when we’ll open the facility,” he said.
The chairman added that while they would like to open the hotel not long after, the timeline for Phase 2 is still up in the air. With ground broken on the casino and financing closed, the tribe is focusing on planning out the hotel, such as how to fund it, where to put it and how big it might be. He said it’s expected to go in the northwest corner of the current building site for now.
Later on down the line, they hope to start Phase 3, which is an events/ conference center that can be used for concerts and conventions.
Keyes said the Iowa Tribe is focused on providing services for communities.
“When we have casinos and we’re making money, they’re not a bunch of casino bosses sitting in an office collecting a big check. That money is taking care of the community,” he said, mentioning the clinic the tribe built and manages in Perkins, which sees tribal members and nonmembers. “That’s the kind of stuff that our, when we have casinos, our economic push, we use that money to take care of people and take care of our community.”
Moving forward, he said the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma wants to be more involved in the Chandler and Wellston communities. He predicts that the new 100,000-squarefoot casino will provide about 150 to 200 jobs, with the hotel doubling that. Not only that, as the casino will be managed by Harrah’s, which is owned by Caesars, there will be jobs that have future growth and strong benefits.
The tribe currently has about $40 million in road projects in their jurisdiction, which includes improvements on Route 66 in front of the new casino. Keyes said there will be some widening and adding in turn lanes. There has also been talks on possibly constructing an overpass that pedestrians could use to go from the new casino to the old, which will be converted into business offices.
Shepherd added that the goal is to work with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) and potentially expand the widening coming from Wellston, as well as put in a stoplight at that junction. At the moment, there are no plans to extend ODOT’s plan, but Shepherd said there has been engagement.
Part of the project has been working with the City of Chandler to improve water and wastewater infrastructure.
Shepherd said there will be a $4 to $5 million upgrade to the water treatment plant in Chandler, and that was engineered to include the new casino and hotel, as well as future growth over the next 40 years. He added that the tribe plans to work with local and county leaders to identify other water resources or potentially create another lake to help.
“I think the tribe is fully engaged and wanting to help with that… the city’s been great to work with so far, and I believe we’ve gotten everything basically where it needs to be,” Shepherd said.