Quapaw Nation's Secretary-Treasurer Guy Barker said he and current Business Committee Chairman Joseph Byrd started looking at the project when they took office in 2020. The casino was supposed to be paid off within 20 years, and former Chairman John Berrey touted the deal’s benefits for the Quapaw people, including housing and utility assistance.īut documents have emerged showing the Downstream Casino underperformed projections and had limited benefit to the tribal nation, in part because of the poor financing terms. That's the price of a home in Ottawa County, where the casino is located.Ī new deal between the Downstream Development Authority and the Bank of Oklahoma will allow Quapaw Nation to refinance that debt to pay down the initial loan and cut their interest rate. The price tag: $301 million dollars.īut as of December 2021, the Quapaw Nation has paid down little of that debt because they were making interest-only payments amounting to $55,000 a day. According to an article published in The Joplin Globe, the 700,000 square-foot space was a marvel for its opulence, attention to detail, restaurants and 2,000 slot machines. In 2008, reporters and photographers were lined up to take pictures of the Quapaw Nation’s new Downstream Casino in far northeastern Oklahoma.
