In the latest legal twist, the state of Kansas recently sued the U.S. Department of the Interior officials in U.S. District Court to try to block the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma from building a casino on a 10-acre tract the tribe purchased in Park City in 1992. In May, the Interior Department reversed its 2014 decision denying the tribe’s request to build on the parcel. The lawsuit seeks to set aside the May ruling.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said state officials found out about the Interior Department’s reversal from news reports, even though the state played a significant role in administrative proceedings and litigation about the issue between 2010 and 2014.
The proposed tribal casino in Park City would be located 30 miles from the state-owned Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane. Sumner County and the city of Mulvane joined the state in its lawsuit, along with the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska.
