The Cherokee County, Kansas commission recently approved a resolution supporting the Kansas attorney general’s move to bar the Quapaw Tribe from extending the Downstream Casino from Oklahoma to Kansas. The National Indian Gaming Commission granted the Quapaw Tribe permission to expand from Oklahoma onto former reservation land in Kansas. The land was placed in trust in 2012 with the stipulation that it only would be used for parking and agriculture, not gambling. Currently it is a Downstream parking lot. Cherokee County Commissioner Richard Hilderbrand said, “When that land was put in trust it was to stay in the same use. And now they’ve filed for gaming. That’s not the same use.”
In late 2013, Downstream Casino applied to operate Class 3 gambling, which includes roulette and craps, on the Kansas land. Class 3 gambling is unconstitutional in Oklahoma. Because the Quapaw Tribe is one of few in the country with reservations across state lines, the NIGC made an exception and approved the Quapaw’s application for the $15 million expansion project that would add 75 jobs.
“If the Quapaw Tribe would have put in a bid just like the other casinos did, and would have met the state requirements, then I have no doubt we would have supported that as well,” Hilderbrand said. Earlier this year the Cherokee County commission passed resolutions endorsing two other developers, Castle Rock Casino Resort and Southeast Kansas Casino Partners LLC, who put in bids with the Kansas State Lottery Commission to build casinos in the county in the Southeast Kansas Gaming Zone.
“The difference is, with anything they build on that trust land, there are no tax dollars involved, no revenue to the county. Currently all traffic that goes to the Downstream Casino that uses county roads, the cost to repair those is directly on the taxpayer,” Hildebrand said.
Quapaw Chairman John Berrey strongly disagreed. “The reality is, Cherokee County benefits greatly from Downstream Casino Resort. The idea that the county isn’t benefiting from gaming–they’re benefiting better than anyone. We’re one of the largest employers; we buy goods and services, we pay taxes. It’s crazy. They would only benefit more in having more jobs, more taxes, more consumption of materials, more economic development, so I don’t understand why they wouldn’t support us. It’s frustrating for us. We don’t understand why they’re attacking us.” Berrey added the land in trust “really is not even in the state of Kansas. It belongs to the Secretary of the Interior. It’s in her name on the title.”
The Quapaw Tribe’s Downstream Casino Resort is a partner with Wichita billionaire Phil Ruffin in Frontenac Development LLC, which also put in a bid to develop a casino in Cherokee County in the Southeast Kansas Gaming Zone. Frontenac’s $110 million Emerald City Casino would be built on the site of the former Camptown Greyhound Park in Frontenac, north of Pittsburg; it’s owned by Ruffin, who also owns Treasure Island in Las Vegas. The property would offer 750 gaming machines, 18 table games, three restaurants and bars, and could create 300-500 new jobs.
In comparison, Castle Rock Casino Resort LLC proposed the $145 million Castle Rock Casino Resort in Cherokee County, featuring a casino, hotel and restaurant, with an entertainment arena possibly added in the future, creating 1,000 jobs; Southeast Kansas Casino Partners proposed the $140 million with a casino, hotel, convention center, restaurants and sports bar, RV park and equestrian center, creating 940 jobs. And in Crawford County, Kansas Crossing Casino LLC and JNB Gaming have proposed the $62 million Kansas Crossing Casino & Hotel including a casino with 525 slot machines and table games, a 100-room hotel, 600-seat entertainment center and a 125-seat restaurant.
The Kansas Lottery will review the proposals and forward them to the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board in April. A winner will be named by the end of June.
