by Matthew S. Robinson
As of December 31, 2025, there were 240 Indian casinos with hotel properties, totaling 62,833 rooms – an average of 261.8 rooms per casino hotel. During 2025, several tribes opened new casino hotels or completed major resort expansions across the country. In February, the Seminole Tribe of Florida opened its new Seminole Brighton Bay Hotel & Casino in Okeechobee, FL. March saw two developments: the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi (Gun Lake Tribe) celebrated the grand opening of its all-new Gun Lake Casino Resort in Wayland, MI, while the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opened the second hotel tower at its Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Hotel & Casino in Murphy, NC.
Additional projects followed throughout the year. In May, the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians opened its all-suite hotel addition at its Black Oak Casino Resort in Tuolumne, CA. In June, the Citizen Band Potawatomi Indian Tribe celebrated the grand opening of its all-new Fire Lake Casino & Hotel in Shawnee, OK. August brought several developments, including the Shawnee Tribe completing the casino expansion and hotel addition at its Golden Mesa Casino in Guymon, OK; the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe celebrating the grand opening of the property expansion and hotel addition at its Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel in Snoqualmie, WA; and the Jamul Indian Village of California opening the hotel addition at its Jamul Casino Resort in Jamul, CA.
Later in the year, the Oneida Indian Nation celebrated the grand opening of its Point Place Casino Hotel expansion in Bridgeport, NY in November. In December, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation opened its new Creek Nation Casino and Hotel Lake Eufaula in Eufaula, OK.
Table 1 presents the historic, estimated and forecast number of hotel rooms at Indian casinos with hotels.
Table 1
In 2026, it is anticipated that six new Indian casino hotels and eight hotel expansions will commence operations, adding almost 1,500 rooms with combined project costs exceeding $1 billion. During 2027, it is anticipated that five new Indian casino hotels and four expansions at existing Indian casinos with hotels will commence operations, adding more than 1,900 rooms with combined project costs of well over $3 billion. And in 2028, it is anticipated that another three new Indian casino properties with hotels will commence operations, adding almost 1,000 rooms with combined project costs of almost $1 billion.
By size, the number of Indian casinos with hotels varies significantly by number of rooms per property. As presented in Table 2 (previous page), of the 240 Indian casinos with hotels in operation by the end of 2025, the largest segments by size are made up of those with less than 100 rooms (78 properties) and those with between 100 and 200 rooms (68 properties). With respect to gaming positions per hotel room by size segment, the ratio ranges from 3.4 to 9.0, with the general pattern showing smaller properties having higher ratios and larger properties having lower ratios. The overall average is 5.4 gaming positions per hotel room.
Table 2
By location, the number and growth of Indians casinos with hotels has varied significantly. As presented in Table 3, over the past five years (2020 – 2025), the greatest increase in the total number of Indian casinos with hotels occurred in Oklahoma (nine casinos with new hotels), followed by Washington (six casinos with new hotels) and then California (four casinos with new hotels). For the same period, the greatest total room increase (which includes new hotels and hotel expansions) occurred in Oklahoma with almost 1,900 additional rooms (32.8 percent increase), followed by California with 1,750 new rooms (19 percent increase) and then Washington with more than 1,400 rooms (46.8 percent increase).
Table 3
This compares to the prior five-year period (2015 – 2020) with both California and Oklahoma accounting for the greatest increase in the total number of Indian casinos with hotels – each with six additional Indian casinos with hotels. For that same period, California added almost 2,350 rooms (34.1 percent increase), while Oklahoma added almost 1,200 rooms (25.5 percent increase). Between 2015 and 2020, Florida actually added more rooms than Oklahoma – a total of over 1,300, with the hotel expansions at both at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino properties in Tampa and Hollywood.
As presented previously, the number of hotels at Indian casinos, along with related resort facilities, has and will continue to increase and expand as a means to both increase the length of stay and attract guests from greater distances, particularly in an increasingly competitive environment.
Matthew S. Robinson is Co-Founder and Principal of KlasRobinson Q.E.D., a national consulting firm specializing in the feasibility and economic impact of casinos, hotels, and other related ancillary developments in Indian Country. He can be reached by calling (800) 475-8140 or email [email protected].