Sports Betting
Oklahoma lawmakers are set to take up a new bill to legalize sports betting. Matt Morgan chairs the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association. He says the state’s tribes all have varied levels of interest in sports betting. "But because of the uniqueness of their operations and their markets and you know how those proposals are set forth, the fine details are going to be really important and whether they're supportive of the idea or not," Morgan said.
Governor Kevin Stitt is pushing for the legalization of sports betting. And a bill filed by Ponca City Representative Ken Luttrell would do just that. But the devil is in the details, says Muscogee Nation spokesperson Jason Salsman. "And I think right now, as it is the language in the proposals, I don't think it works for the Muscogee nation as they're not saying that we can, you know, work to build on it and get some things worked out," Luttrell said.
Luttrell’s bill involves a tiered fee structure for tribes where they pay more of a percentage of their revenue based on how much money they take in. That resembles the state’s exclusivity payments for tribes under the model gaming compact. In 2022 Tribal nations paid more than $166 million dollars in exclusivity fees to fund education and other services. Regardless, it appears the bill will need work and tribes will need to be consulted. The online news outlet The Frontier reports Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat says he won’t support a deal before Oklahoma’s 39 tribes come to the negotiating table.
Food Costs
Another pandemic-related break for low-income earners and families is coming to an end, and food costs are going to get even harder to deal with for hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP or food stamps, has been giving families a little more help for the past three years. Each month, anyone using the benefit would have about $100 more to spend on groceries. But when Congress passed its $1.7 trillion spending bill last year, lawmakers nixed the extra benefit. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services, which administers the federal program for the state, is telling families to prepare for the drop, which begins on March 1.
In fiscal year 2022, more than 850,000 Oklahomans used the benefits. During that time, the average benefit was about $7 per person per day. That works out to about $2.36 per meal.
Jobs Numbers
While nearly 50,000 jobs were added to Oklahoma’s economy in 2022, the unemployment rate is also up from the previous year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show a nearly 3% increase in workers from 2021 to 2022, with the largest portion of job growth in the government sector. However, seasonally adjusted unemployment was up by nearly 11,000 people, and statistics show Oklahoma has about two job openings for every one person seeking a job.
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