In Carter Lake, Iowa, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is preparing a 4-acre construction site for its Prairie Flower Casino, located just a few hundred feet outside the Omaha, Nebraska city limits. The lot, between a steel fabricating plant and a trucking company, currently is occupied by a discount tobacco story managed by the tribe.
Ponca Chair Larry Wright said, “The location is such that it is unique. As we have said to everybody, we want to build positive relationships that are mutually beneficial.” He said the tribe is finalizing payment agreements to reimburse Carter Lake for revenue it would lose by making the land tribal territory.
Wright said the first phase of the casino would offer 2,000 slot machines. Phase two, he said, would be financed from phase-one proceeds plus a loan from a Minnesota-based tribal gaming operation. Eventually the venue would include a more elaborate casino with blackjack and craps and a 7-story hotel. “It will be a first-rate facility. We want to drive the user experience and provide first class hospitality,” Wright said.
Casino revenue would finance health services, housing, care for tribal elders and education programs. “The impact from the economic revenue we look to generate here was just too much to walk away from. This isn’t going to solve all of our problems but it will help us take the next steps,”
Wright said.
Carter Lake Mayor Ron Cumberledge said, “This project brings new life to land that’s never seen development in my lifetime.” City council member Pat Paterson noted, “The Ponca Tribe can build its casino on its sovereign land with or without the permission of Carter Lake.”
Meanwhile, officials in nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa sued the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Department of Interior in U.S. Federal District Court in an attempt to stop the Ponca casino and protect the revenue it derives from its three commercial casinos. The states of Iowa and Nebraska joined the Council Bluffs lawsuit in May. The plaintiffs claim the Ponca Tribe misrepresented its plans when it asked the federal government to designate the 4-acre tract as Ponca territory after it was reestablished as a sovereign tribe.
Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said the tribe “in order to get a spirit of cooperation from the state of Iowa made representations it would be a medical clinic.” However, within two years, “all of a sudden it was going to become a gaming facility,” Peterson said. He added he has “a lot of concern” that if the land is deemed tribal territory, “the Ponca Tribe can go around and buy different properties” around Nebraska, and possibly “those additional properties can be used for gambling purposes.”
The NIGC approved the tribe’s acquisition of the land two times, and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has defended that decision, which also has been upheld by previous administrations.
Wright commented, “We think we are being unfairly scrutinized. This issue with Nebraska, and I don’t think anyone can argue, is largely because at the political level, they don’t want gaming.” Casino gambling is illegal in Nebraska.
The tribe has not stated when the casino may open but construction could be completed before the lawsuit is resolved.
With a population of 3,500, Carter Lake is located in Iowa but is physically surrounded by Nebraska due to shifts in the Missouri River. It’s located less than a mile from Omaha’s Eppley Airfield which handles more than 4 million passengers a year, and less than five minutes from downtown Omaha, population 900,000.
