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CEO: Bartlesville Osage Casino & Hotel to open Nov. 16

An Osage tribal member preview will be held on Nov. 15

The new Bartlesville Osage Casino & Hotel is scheduled to open its doors on Nov. 16 and there will be a preview event for Osage tribal members on Nov. 15 to view the property and its amenities.

Osage Casinos CEO Kimberly Pearson announced the Bartlesville opening date during the Oct. 25 Gaming Enterprise Board meeting. In preparation for the new casino opening, Pearson said plans are being made to close the current Bartlesville casino on Nov. 8.

“Grand opening will be on the 16th at 10 a.m.,” Pearson said, adding the preview event for Osage tribal members will be Oct. 15 for attendees to tour the property and enjoy food in the new casino banquet rooms as they did during the Pawhuska hotel/ casino opening festivities on the evening of Oct. 4.

The new Bartlesville casino property is located off U.S. 60 about two miles west of downtown and will be closer in distance to the city versus the current location accessible by two county roads, including one with a narrow bridge and hazardous conditions especially during inclement weather.

Osage Nation and casino officials broke ground on the casino project in June 2021, which is built on more than 120 acres and will open with 521 electronic machines and a new restaurant, according to the casino website. The hotel tower comprises 102 hotel rooms and includes a swimming pool and hot tub. For special events, there will be 6,210 square feet of versatile banquet space available to rent.

The current Bartlesville casino opened in 2006 under the former Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino name on a remote property located approximately five miles west of State Highway 123 and four miles south of U.S. 60.

This is the last of the two new Osage Casino & Hotel properties to open this year with Pawhuska’s now open. Bartlesville and Pawhuska’s new larger properties join the current ones built at Ponca City and Skiatook (both opened in 2013) and the flagship property in Tulsa, which opened in 2018.

“The opening of Pawhuska, I thought went incredibly well, I have heard nothing but great feedback – ‘thank you for everything you guys did to get Pawhuska open,’” Pearson told the board. 

Going forward, Pearson said new digital signage for both Pawhuska and Bartlesville properties, as well as new warehouses will be projects to come at a later date.

Also during the meeting, Kyle Revard, Chief Human Resources Officer, delivered a staffing update on the new casino properties.

“When we opened Pawhuska at the beginning of October, we opened with 139 employees, we were targeting 153, so we knew we were opening a little short. Our current numbers, as of today, we have 147 employees at Pawhuska,” Revard said. “Out of that 139 that we opened with, we were projecting to lose 15% (turnover), but we only lost three employees so far.”

Revard said the Bartlesville property is “87% hired, we’re short about 35 employees, but we still have less than a month to capture those 35 employees, so we are sitting pretty well with the Bartlesville property and ready to open and train those employees once we get them on board and through (gaming) licensing.”

For more information on Osage Casinos locations and job opportunities, visit www.osagecasino.com

Author

  • Benny Polacca

    Title: Senior Reporter

    Email: bpolacca@osagenation-nsn.gov

    Instagram: @bpolacca

    Topic Expertise: Government, Tribal Government, Community

    Languages spoken: English, basic knowledge of Spanish and French

    Benny Polacca (Hopi/ Havasupai/ Pima/ Tohono O’odham) started working at the Osage News in 2009 as a reporter in Pawhuska, Okla., where he’s covered various stories and events that impact the Osage Nation and Osage people. Those newspaper contributions cover a broad spectrum of topics and issues from tribal government matters to features. As a result, Polacca has gained an immeasurable amount of experience in covering Native American affairs, government issues and features so the Osage readership can be better informed about the tribal current affairs the newspaper covers.

    Polacca is part of the Osage News team that was awarded the Native American Journalists Association's Elias Boudinet Free Press Award in 2014 and has won numerous NAJA media awards, as well as awards from the Oklahoma Press Association and SPJ Oklahoma Pro Chapter, for storytelling coverage and photography.

    Polacca earned his bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and also participated in the former American Indian Journalism Institute at the University of South Dakota where he was introduced to the basics of journalism and worked with seasoned journalists there and later at The Forum daily newspaper covering the Fargo, N.D. area where he worked as the weeknight reporter.

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Benny Polacca
Benny Polaccahttps://osagenews.org

Title: Senior Reporter

Email: bpolacca@osagenation-nsn.gov

Instagram: @bpolacca

Topic Expertise: Government, Tribal Government, Community

Languages spoken: English, basic knowledge of Spanish and French

Benny Polacca (Hopi/ Havasupai/ Pima/ Tohono O’odham) started working at the Osage News in 2009 as a reporter in Pawhuska, Okla., where he’s covered various stories and events that impact the Osage Nation and Osage people. Those newspaper contributions cover a broad spectrum of topics and issues from tribal government matters to features. As a result, Polacca has gained an immeasurable amount of experience in covering Native American affairs, government issues and features so the Osage readership can be better informed about the tribal current affairs the newspaper covers.

Polacca is part of the Osage News team that was awarded the Native American Journalists Association's Elias Boudinet Free Press Award in 2014 and has won numerous NAJA media awards, as well as awards from the Oklahoma Press Association and SPJ Oklahoma Pro Chapter, for storytelling coverage and photography.

Polacca earned his bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and also participated in the former American Indian Journalism Institute at the University of South Dakota where he was introduced to the basics of journalism and worked with seasoned journalists there and later at The Forum daily newspaper covering the Fargo, N.D. area where he worked as the weeknight reporter.

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