Mayor ready to talk with Miami Nation

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

GARY, Ind. -- Gary's mayor says he is ready to meet with representatives of the Miami Nation of Oklahoma to discuss their proposal to open a land-based casino in the northwestern Indiana city.

Mayor Scott King said he hopes to arrange a meeting this week to discuss the results of a marketing study.

"I plan to share the information and discuss the next step," King said.

The report offers Lake Charles, La., as a comparable market area where traditional riverboat gambling and Indian casinos coexist, King said.

The Lake Charles area gambling market includes a pair of two-boat casino complexes and a tribal casino run by the Coushattas at nearby Kinder.

All existing casinos in Indiana operate from boats on the Ohio River and Lake Michigan. Lawmakers rejected a proposal for a land-based casino near French Lick during this year's special legislative session.

King has been negotiating with the Miami Nation since April, when the tribe's attorneys sent a letter asserting claims to land in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and St. Joseph counties under treaties signed in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and seeking to establish a casino.