Casino expands to include family friendly water park and more hotel rooms

An indoor water park with thrill rides and a lazy river is planned for the 7 Clans First Council Hotel and Casino south of Arkansas City in Oklahoma.

The 30,000-square-foot water park and 60 more hotel rooms will create a year-round destination site for families, according to the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, which operates the property.

“This project is (the) next phase in our plan to be the top entertainment destination in North Central Oklahoma,” said Otoe-Missouria Chairman John Shotton in a prepared statement. “…The expansion will provide a family entertainment experience unlike any other in our region.”

The casino has been near Newkirk since 2007 and has already expanded three times, Shotton said Thursday.

“We expanded the casino, built the hotel and then the event center,” Shotton said. “We are always looking for new ways to bring in additional patrons and entertainment venues.”

The tribe broke ground on the expansion last week. Construction is expected to be completed by late December.

This also marks, in many ways, Shotton said, a chance for more family involvement.

“Its always been geared toward gamblers coming to the casino,” he said. “But now, we want the main thing to be an entertainment experience. Anything we can do to bring more people to our resort area. We want to bring more people to the hotels and build experiences.

“There really is a need for more family-type things that are year-round in our area.”

At least 60 percent of people who visit the casino complex are from south-central Kansas, Shotton said, with the majority of those from Wichita.

“It’s an hour’s drive from Wichita,” he said. “We are hoping this provides more jobs. We are expecting several hundred jobs to come out of the project.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Casino expands to include family friendly water park and more hotel rooms."