On Monday, Derek Schmidt, the Kansas Attorney General, has filed a lawsuit against the Quapaw Tribe. The tribe is located in Oklahoma and its leaders expressed their interest in expanding their business by adding new features to the casino located across the border with Kansas.
The lawsuit, filed by Mr. Schmidt, comes at a time when Kansas officials are considering the opportunity for giving the green light to the establishment of a casino in the southeast part of Kansas.
There are three proposals and if one of them is approved, the future casino is expected to pose a serious threat to the revenues of the tribal property known as Downstream Casino Resort. The casino venue has been operating for seven years and in point of fact, its opening halted the procedure for building a casino on the territory of Kansas.
The lawsuit itself was submitted to the US District Court in Topeka on Monday and it questions the adequacy of the decision made by the National Indian Gaming Commission. Back in 2014, they approved of the availability of casino games in Cherokee County, situated in southeast Kansas.
The above-mentioned site is neighboring the Downstream Casino Resort. Nine years ago, the tribe obtained it with the aim of making it serve as a parking lot.
The tribe acquired the land into trust in 2012 and the federal government members announced that it is allowed to provide gambling activities on the site.
Now, the tribe is intending to expand their business by investing $15 million in table games. However, these are prohibited on the territory of Oklahoma.
Another factor, which made Mr. Schmidt file the lawsuit was that according to him, the commission has exceeded its authority and apart from that, the decision was not well-thought-out. The Attorney General also argued that Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has the legal right to veto the intentions of the tribe.
In addition, Mr. Schmidt did not miss to remind that prior to acquiring the land, the tribal leaders announced that they were going to use it as a parking lot.
It also became clear that Kansas Governor as well as the Cherokee County Commission are totally against the casino expansion.
Yesterday, Mr. Schmidt made an announcement and said that the tribal leaders should be forced to keep their promise and use the land for parking purposes only instead of diversifying the casino floor. He concluded that the government members should take a stance on the issue and prevent the casino expansion.
A representative of the tribe was not reached for a comment. The spokesperson of the federal commission was reluctant to discuss the matter, either.
