By Pepper Fisher

BLYN – The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe expects to offer sports betting at the 7 Cedars Casino later this year.

The Washington State Gambling Association announced this month they had reached tentative agreements with the Kalispel Tribe, the Snoqualmie Tribe and Suquamish Tribe to amend its Class III gaming compact to add sports wagering.

7 Cedars Casino CEO Jerry Allen says the Suquamish agreement actually represented several Tribes as a consortium.

“There was nine tribes, of which we were part of, led by Suquamish who went into, we call it, collective negotiations. And so we got to where we wanted to be. There were some things that no one could collectively agree on everything. But at the end of the day, it’ll work for us. And so, like I say, 7 Cedars should come out with an announcement here, not too distant, to say who are partner’s going to be.”

By “partner”, Allen means the Tribe is planning to work with an established sports betting organization, though he isn’t ready to say who at this time.

“There’s a lot of big boys out there that want to get into Washington. You know, like FanDuel and DraftKings and MGM Bet. None of those that we’re going to be doing it with, but we have somebody that we’re actively engaging in conversation with a contract. So you’ll start to see some of those agreements coming out, I suspect fairly soon, after we get these agreements in place.”

In practice, the agreements would allow betting on professional and collegiate sports, the Olympic games and e-sport competitions, provided it takes place on-site at the casino.

There are state and federal hoops to clear before the contracts would take effect, but Allen says the goal is to have sports wagering up and running at 7 Cedars Casino by the start of the NFL season.