In a recent opinion, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said legislation allowing Sedgwick County residents to re-vote on allowing slots at the shuttered Wichita Greyhound Park would breach the Kansas Lottery’s contract with the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane. Schmidt also stated the courts most likely would overturn any law permitting a re-vote in Sedgwick County. “It is clear that if the state were to take action today, in the absence of enactment of new legislation, to allow placement of electronic gaming machines at the Wichita racetrack facility, that action would violate both the contract and state law,” Schmidt said.
Under state law, the gambling contracts stated no further gambling facilities with slot machines would be allowed in the state until at least 2032. The Kansas Star paid a special “privilege fee” to be the only gaming facility in the south-central Kansas gaming zone. Its management, Schmidt said, “would have a strong claim for damages from lost market share due to the state’s illegal operation” of slot machines in Sedgwick County.
Voters in Sedgwick County in 2007 rejected slots in the county and also rejected a destination casino. Wichita Greyhound Park closed in 2007 following the vote. Sumner County residents approved a destination casino and that vote resulted in the Kansas Star Casino, opened in 2011, one of three state-owned casinos. A fourth and final state-owned operation is planned for southeast Kansas.
An opponent of gambling, state Rep. Mark Kahrs of Wichita, requested the opinion from Schmidt. He noted Schmidt’s opinion “should shut down any debate on whether or not there should be a re-vote in Sedgwick County.”
