Winstar charges an ante on every hand. They give back about 30% of that on hand bonuses and give back another chunk of it in VIP tournaments and drawings that your play qualifies you for. Still, even with all of those "goodies" you're playing against an increased house advantage that depends on how much of the goodies you can take advantage of. Living close enough to take full advantage of everything is advisable. On the flip side, there is virtually zero heat or attention for any bet spread you can possibly imagine. You probably will need to optimize your bet spread to minimize the impact of the ante and use more wonging to avoid paying the collection during as many waiting bets as possible. As has been stated here many OK casinos have no-ante hours or days (usually mid week) which require you to have a player card.
Other casinos in OK have been known to be sweaty and angry at AP's even though those casinos supposedly make 100% of their profit from the ante/collection. My guess is that there is substantial skimming at some casinos from the player pool (win of the game itself) that is going to some tribes and their tribal leaders. We played a 2:1 promo once where the pit was pulling for all of the players, then some tribal leaders came into the pit and talked to a few managers and the next thing you know winning players from out of town were suddenly 86'd. The floor people were all very confused about it and didn't understand what was going on, they all knew that AP's don't hurt the bottom line of the casinos in Oklahoma because their profits are guaranteed by the collection. That was when I realized how rampant skimming was in Oklahoma.
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