How Much Does It Cost to Stay at an Oklahoma Casino?

Oklahoma isn’t a major travel destination for most people. Sure, some people fly in from time to time, but it’s nothing compared to states which have major well-known cities like Las Vegas or New York.

But some people do visit Oklahoma on a regular basis. And many times, they’re there because they want to gamble.

What do these Oklahoma gamblers spend to stay the night at an Oklahoma casino?

Find out more in this post.

How Much Does It Cost to Stay at the WinStar Casino?

WinStar World Casino and Resort is the largest casino in the United States and one of the largest casinos in the entire world. You’ll find WinStar in Thackerville, Oklahoma, which is the first exit when entering Oklahoma from Texas. Before the WinStar was located there, I didn’t even know Thackerville existed even though I drove through the town dozens of times on my way to places like Lake Murray and Turner Falls.

WinStar opened in 2004, and at that time, it was little more than a tent in the middle of nowhere. It was a huge tent, though. It was casino-sized, in fact. But it has since grown to have more gambling space on the casino floor than even Foxwoods, which formerly held the title of biggest casino in the United States.

Gamblers can choose from over 8500 slot machine games and over 100 different table games. WinStar also has an active poker room with 55 tables. Even though the poker room is large, you might have to get on a waitlist for a little while in order to get a seat and play.

You can also play bingo and keno, or you can bet on horse races at the casino’s racebook.

WinStar Hotel Prices per Night

How much does it cost to stay at WinStar?

I used to work in the hotel industry, and one of the first things I learned is that hotel rooms are a commodity priced according to supply and demand. In other words, if a hotel has no bookings on a given date, they’re going to sell their rooms as cheaply as possible.

As those rooms start to get booked up, the prices for those rooms go up, too. This is supply and demand in action. In the industry, this practice of basing prices on occupancy levels is called “revenue management.”

The rate on the door in the hotel is called “the rack rate,” but you’ll almost never pay the rack rate. In fact, most of the time, you’ll pay significantly less than the rack rate.

The prices at WinStar also vary based on where you stay on the property. You have three options:

1. The WinStar World Casino Hotel
2. The Inn at WinStar
3. Fun Town RV Park at WinStar

The WinStar World Casino Hotel is the main hotel, and you have multiple rooms you can choose from there, too. The nicest of these is probably the pool tower kings, but the casino has a limited number of these rooms available.

Prices for these rooms range from $139 to $359, depending on occupancy levels. Yes, that’s expensive for a hotel in Oklahoma, but it’s also the biggest casino in the United States. And it’s the nicest room they have.

The casino tower rooms are available in the same price range, although you’ll rarely see those rooms get up to $359.

The Inn at WinStar is a mile from the casino and offers free shuttle service to and from the casino. It’s a more affordable option for people who want to spend so much money per night for their hotel stay. Room rates at The Inn at WinStar start at $99 per night and get up to $199 per night during high occupancy periods.

Fun Town RV Park at WinStar offers multiple options, too. You can stay in your RV at the pull-through site for $20 or $30 per night. They also offer “primitive” campgrounds where you can pitch a tent for even less.

How Much Does It Cost to Stay at Choctaw Durant?

You’ll find multiple Choctaw Casinos throughout Oklahoma, but the biggest and best is the one in Durant. It’s comparable to WinStar, but it’s further east. I spent a lot of time playing poker there when I lived east of the DFW metroplex because it was closer to me than WinStar at the time.

The Choctaw in Durant is the original Choctaw Casino location, and it’s roughly half the size of the WinStar. It’s also slightly newer, having opened in 2006. It’s considered the “flagship” of the Choctaw Casinos.

As with WinStar, Choctaw has multiple options available, including the main hotels in the Grand Tower and the Spa Tower, the Choctaw Inn, and the RV Park.

Rooms at both the Inn and in the Towers at the Choctaw are expensive compared to rooms at the WinStar. You wouldn’t think that was the case since the WinStar is so much bigger, but that’s exactly why the prices are higher here.

Bigger hotels have more rooms, and price is based on supply and demand, remember?

When you have fewer rooms, you must charge more per room per night to make money. You’ll spend between $200 and $300 per night to stay at either the Inn or the Towers at Choctaw.

Even the RV park there is more expensive, around $50/night depending on when you’re traveling.

What About the Other Hotels and Casinos in Oklahoma?

You don’t have to stay at the hotel provided by the casino. You can always find a more affordable property near the casino and drive to and from. It’s not unusual to find motels available for $30 a night or so in Oklahoma.

Generally, the closer the motel is to the casino, the higher the price per night. Also, the nicer the accommodations are, the higher the price per night.

You can also find lower prices on motels and hotels by using various hotel merchants on the internet. The business model is more or less the same regardless of which site you use.

A company like Hotels.com will go to the hotel and negotiate an allotment of rooms that they’ll guarantee to sell for the hotel. For example, they might call Choctaw and get an allotment of 10 of their 100 rooms in the Tower, and that means the hotel only has to fill the other 90 rooms.

10 rooms x 365 nights per year is 3,650 room nights. That’s enough volume to warrant a big discount. A company like Hotels.com gets those rooms at wholesale rate, and they mark up the rooms for resale to the traveler.

Everyone wins. The hotel has a higher occupancy rate than it would otherwise. Hotels.com makes a profit selling the rooms. And the customer still gets a lower price than she would booking directly with the property itself.

The main thing to remember about hotel prices in Oklahoma is that you should shop around and try to negotiate. Being nice to the staff that you’re dealing with, either on the phone or in person, can only help you get a better price.

People like to help people they like, and they generally like people who are nicer to them.

What About Comp Stays?

If you’ve read about or heard about casino gambling, you probably know that some gamblers get to stay at hotels for free. These are called comp stays.

When a casino wants to attract gamblers who can lose lots of money, they do so by offering comps on things like rooms, food, and other amenities. You might get a free round of golf, for example, or tickets to a concert.

The only reason the casino gives gamblers free stuff is because they want to win more money from you than the free stuff costs them.

You should join the players’ club at the casino before ever wagering even a dollar on a slot machine. Every penny you wager is eligible for a specific amount of rebates in the form of comps of even actual cash to gamble with. Gambling without using your players’ card is just like paying more for your gambling entertainment than you should have to.

Conclusion

How much does it cost to stay at a casino in Oklahoma? It depends on how much you gamble. If you wager a lot of money, you can probably stay at the casino for free.

It also depends on the hotel’s occupancy. They generally prefer to offer comp rooms on nights when the hotel has a lot of empty rooms anyway.

Finally, if you’re a budget traveler, don’t forget that you can always stay at a more affordable motel and just hoof it back and forth from the casino.