The U.S. Department of Interior recently rejected the Wyandotte Nation’s application to take into trust a 10.5-acre tract in the Wichita suburb of Park City, where the tribe hoped to build a casino, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office said. The Interior Department ruled the tribe did not have sufficient trust funds to have purchased both the Park City parcel and a tract in Kansas City, Kansas where it previously built a casino.
Formerly known as the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma, the Wyandotte Nation filed a federal lawsuit in 2011 stating it needed to reacquire land it lost due to “failed federal policies” after receiving federal recognition in 1978. The tribe said the Interior Department had a “mandatory duty” to take the Park City land into trust since the tribe purchased it using money Congress had set aside to buy property to put into trust for the tribe’s benefit.
In 2012 a federal court said the state of Kansas, which tried to intervene in the Wyandotte Nation’s lawsuit, failed to show how it has been hurt by the Interior Department’s review of the tribe’s land-trust application. The state noted it had granted Peninsula Gaming the exclusive right to operate a casino in south-central Kansas, just 25 miles from Park City, and that its taxing, regulatory and economic interests were at stake.
But the case turned on money. In April 2013, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ruled that an audit by the state of Kansas showed the tribe’s trust funds did not cover the purchases of both the Park City and Kansas City tracts. However, Robinson said the land-purchase issue was beyond her authority and she only could rule on the tribe’s claim of unreasonable delay. As a result, she ordered the Interior Department to make quarterly progress reports to make sure the tribe’s application was processed in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, the Interior Department sent a 10-page letter to the tribe explaining why its application ultimately was denied. The bottom line: department officials said the audit indeed found the tribe commingled its settlement fund with other money, leaving the department “unable to conclude that the Nation used 602 funds exclusively to purchase the Park City parcel.”
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said, “This decision is one more successful step in defending Kansas law, which does not allow a tribal casino in Sedgwick County. If there are later efforts by the tribe or others to contest the Department’s denial of the application, we will continue to vigorously defend our state’s legal interests.”
In statement, Wyandotte Nation Chief Billy Friend said, “For the past 22 years, the Nation has steadfastly contended that the Department has a mandatory duty to take the Park City land into trust for the Wyandotte. This decision by the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs only furthers the resolve of the Nation to vindicate that right. The Nation will continue to pursue all legal and regulatory avenues available to have the land taken into trust.” He added, “It turned into a very political decision. The State of Kansas, along with their gaming partner, Boyd Gaming in Mulvane, spent several hundred thousand dollars in lobbyists.”
Park City Administrator Jack Whitson said the casino would have brought 1,500 jobs to the city and boost tax base of Sedgwick County. “Certainly it’s disappointing. How many millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have we spent fighting this particular tribe? So we spend millions of dollars fighting them and then reject the number of jobs that they could bring into not only this area but the investment as well,” Whitson said.
Another group that recently applied for a gaming license to open a Kansas casino includes the owners of the long-closed Camptown Greyhound Park near Pittsburg, which ran live races for less than six months in 1995-1996. The group recently applied to the Kansas Lottery Commission for the last remaining gaming license for a state-owned casino.
The license has been available but unfilled since casino gambling became legal in 2007. However, legislation recently went into effect lowering the initial development investment from $225 million to $50 million and the application fee from $25 million to $5.5 million.
One location that could be the target for a new casino is the Camptown Greyhound Park just north of Pittsburg on Highway 69. State Rep. Julie Menghini said a casino there would “keep folks from the Southeast Kansas region from traveling to Oklahoma and Missouri to spend their dollars. We think it will create some economic development in the way of hotels, restaurants, perhaps even some shopping, which would be great. It would help keep Kansas dollars in Kansas.”
