A proposed gambling resort about five miles south of Arkansas City would include a casino, hotel and golf course and expects to draw much of its business from southern Kansas.
The Pawnee Nation plans to build the resort on 800 acres adjoining the old Chilocco Indian School.
The casino site is south of the school's vacant buildings and the resort would be visible from U.S. 77, said Roger Foster, the tribe's development corporation manager.
A 150-room hotel would be built near a casino housing 1,200 electronic gambling machines, he said.
The tribe is waiting on federal and state approvals but construction could start within weeks, he said. The tribe hopes to open the facility in spring of 2006. Oklahoma voters last year approved an act that allows new types of gambling machines and permits card games.
Foster said the facility will feature a level of Class 3 gaming that includes more than the bingo-style games currently offered in the area, he said. Blackjack and roulette tables will be allowed, although players cannot bet against the house.
"Get ready for some excitement up there," Foster said Monday. "It's going to be a pretty nice project. It's going to be first class."
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, Okla.
The tribe also would install about 65 machines in a convenience store in Pawnee, Foster 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, he added.
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.
The casino, if built, presents an opportunity to draw visitors to Arkansas City's downtown, concerts and museums, said Jeanne Richardson, director of the convention and visitors bureau.
"We can sure grab those people and bring them up here by the busload," Richardson said Monday.
The Pawnees are among six tribes with land in trust at the old Chilocco site. Others are the Kaws, Cherokees, Poncas, Tonkawas and Otoe-Missourias.
The Tonkawas have had a proposal to build a casino along highway 77, but development has stalled for months. The Pawnee project is about a quarter mile west of the Tonkawa site, Foster said.
All but the Cherokee Nation have 816 acres at the school location. The Cherokees have the remainder, about 4,000 acres, said Wanda Stone, a Kaw nation council member.
Stone said an agreement has been in place for years preventing any tribe from opening a business on its Chilocco land that would hurt any of the other tribes. The Kaw Nation has a small operation at Newkirk.
''That would just kill our casino,'' Stone said. ''I don't think anything was ever put in writing, but it's just been an understanding.''
Foster said he thought that at one time Pawnee members had consulted other tribes about the casino plan. "We are moving forward," he added.
