WinStar World Casino Resort, in Thackerville, Oklahoma, signed a deal with Lucas Oil to bring a new live concert space to the world’s largest casino this fall.
As part of the deal, Lucas Oil got the naming rights for the concert venue, which will be called Lucas Oil Live.
Sitting on the Texas/Oklahoma border, the Winstar expansion plans will surely attract cross-border visitors who travel out of state because there are no legal Texas casinos.
Lucas Oil Live will double the capacity of Winstar’s concert venue
WinStar General Manager Jack Parkinson is excited about the arrangement. He believes the Lucas Oil Live venue will magnify the resort’s experience for guests and music lovers.
The added 6,500-seat concert venue will in effect double the capacity of the current venue. Sound and technical capabilities will be of the highest standard to ensure that top entertainers continue performing at the resort.
WinStar was known for putting on live concerts and hosting big conventions at the casino’s Global Event Center before the pandemic.
WinStar was forced in 2020 to shut the doors to its 250,000-square-foot Global Event Center because of COVID-19. It was later replaced with a non-smoking gaming floor linked to the Rome Gaming Plaza. The plan, however, is to revert the events center to its original use with Lucas Oil Live.
Winstar currently offers:
- Nearly 10,500 slot machines
- Electronic gaming positions
- More than 100 table games
- 2,000 hotel rooms
- 19 restaurants and bars
- Retail shopping
- A resort pool
- An 18-hole championship golf course
Lucas Oil Live should be home to top-tier entertainment
Plans for the new venue indicate an amphitheater-style with various seating options, from VIP to general admission. At some point in the future, Lucas Oil Live will also arrange for suites and club-level offerings.
The Chickasaw Nation hopes to make WinStar and its new concert hall a place for top-tier entertainment and events. A flexible VIP lounge will be in place and double as a midweek meeting and business space.
Preparations are underway for a fall launch. An event schedule and ticket information will be found on WinStar.com and WinStar’s social channels soon.
Oklahoma casino opened new Spa Tower in January
The first few weeks of the year have been busy for WinStar. Besides the deal with Lucas Oil, the luxury resort also opened its newest hotel tower called the Spa Tower.
One of the more enticing amenities of the spa venue is its two-story spa experience that comes with lavish service in a tranquil setting. The Spa Tower has 304 rooms and welcomed its first guests in January.
According to WinStar, the Lucas Oil Live and Spa Tower projects are part of the Oklahoma casino’s $600 million enhancement. And that is for good reason: the casino’s hotel rooms are occupied most of the year, and up to 90% of those guests drive up from Texas.
Only 70 air miles separate the conglomerate of Dallas-Fort Worth from Thackerville, where the WinStar World Casino Resort resides.
Although Texas and Oklahoma disallow commercial gaming, federally recognized tribes can operate Class III casinos in Oklahoma.
Not only is Winstar the biggest casino in the country, but it’s also one of the wealthiest. The Chickasaw Nation generated more than $2 billion in gross gaming revenue from casinos last year.
And there’s more where that came from. Besides WinStar, the tribe operates 22 other casinos and gaming facilities in the Sooner State.
Texans will likely make up the main workforce at Lucas Oil Live
PlayTexas contacted WinStar to determine how many people it expects will be employed at the new Lucas Oil Live venue. An exact figure could not be provided.
However, Thackerville only has a population of 455. Given its proximity to the Texas border, the town’s closest major cities are all located in Texas except for Oklahoma City:
- Dallas – 73 miles
- Fort Worth – 73 miles
- Arlington – 73 miles
- Plano – 59 miles
- Garland – 67 miles
- Oklahoma City – 118 miles
Therefore, it’s reasonable to expect that a good portion of the people going to work at the new Lucas Oil Live venue will be commuting from Texas.
