Tribal Members Discuss Gaming Ordinance at Town Hall

Comanche Nation Chairman Forrest Tahdooahnippah held a town hall for Comanche Nation Tribal Members to discuss a new gaming ordinance at the Comanche Nation Tribal Complex in the Code Talker Room.

He said he wanted input on the new ordinance from Tribal Council Members.

“To conduct gaming, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requires you to have an ordinance, so we have had an ordinance for a while, but it's gone through several different iterations and permutations, and different things have changed, and so we are considering changing it again,” Tahdooahnippah said. “It hasn't been changed yet, and that was the purpose of the meeting was just to get comments from the public of things they would like to have changed in the ordinance, which just governs how our gaming is conducted.”

There are going to be two significant changes to the ordinance, according to Tahdooahnippah.

“The reintroduction of the board of directors for Comanche Nation Entertainment. Comanche Nation Entertainment is the organization that runs the operations of the casinos. And so, right now, they have a chief executive officer that reports directly to the CBC, and under these revisions, there would be a board of directors that would be supervising the CEO that would then report to the CBC,” he said. “So, it would just add another layer of management to the casinos, and then the other significant change would increase the number of gaming commissioners who oversee the regulation of the casinos from one commissioner to three commissioners, or maybe three plus an alternate. That was part of the discussion today is how many commissioners to have.”

Tahdooahnippah said the changes are important for an efficient and profitable casino business.

“Right now, you know, I think there's in recent memory we've at least run into the perception from the community that our casinos aren't thriving the way they should be, and part of that is just that, you know, lacking management. I mean, there's been part of the discussion today was the cash casino and some of the delays around that,” he said. “You know, I think there's been in the political sphere a lot of discussion about the per caps and sort of, you know, especially with inflation, the inability of our revenue to keep up with inflation. And so, the idea here is if we have better management oversight, better regulatory oversight, then everything will just operate better and will generate more revenue.”

Tahdooahnippah said the ordinance should go into effect sometime in the fall of 2024.

“The idea right now is to take the comments that we just got, take any other comments that were submitted online, consider them, debate them and then have a gaming ordinance that's ready for approval by the CBC at its August monthly meeting,” he said. “And then those will go to the National Indian Gaming Commission, who has 45 days to approve or disapprove them. So hopefully, this will all go into effect, you know, like, maybe in the middle of September.”

Tahdooahnippah said significant ordinances may receive town hall meetings and looks forward to trying it out again.