Pawnee Nation plans gambling resort with golf course

Monday, Jan. 31, 2005 | 9:16 a.m.

PAWNEE, Okla. -- A proposed gambling resort that would include a casino, hotel and golf course would draw much of its business from southern Kansas, according to the resort's developers.

The Pawnee Nation plans to build the resort on 800 acres adjoining the old Chilocco Indian School, which is north of Newkirk and just south of the Kansas state line. The 167-acre campus has been vacant three years.

A 150-room hotel would be built near a casino housing 1,200 electronic gambling machines, said Roger Foster, the tribe's development corporation manager.

The tribe has signed a contract for three gaming operations with a Minnesota company. Under the agreement, Lakes Entertainment would develop and manage the Chilocco casino and a much smaller one in what is now a tribe-owned gas station about nine miles south of Pawnee.

The tribe also would install about 65 machines in a convenience store in Pawnee, Foster said.

He said all three locations have been in federal trust since at least 1988, allowing the tribe to bypass a strict federal land review process for building a casino.

The Chilocco location seemingly would draw much of its business from southern Kansas, which has no casinos. Industry experts say northern Oklahoma is a relatively untapped casino hotbed.