Kansas casino legality won’t go to state Supreme Court right away
By JIM SULLINGER and RICK ALM
The Kansas City Star
TOPEKA | Efforts to put Kansas casino gambling on a legal fast track hit a speed bump Thursday.
Going directly to the Kansas Supreme Court, Attorney General Paul Morrison had filed a “friendly” lawsuit last month, asking whether the new casino gambling law violated the Kansas Constitution.
Gambling supporters said that legal route would be faster than going to Shawnee County District Court in Topeka and waiting for the appeals process that was bound to follow.
The strategy did not work.
On Thursday, Supreme Court justices sent the case to the district court for trial.
“We’re disappointed by the court’s action,” Morrison said, “because the issues here must be resolved by the Kansas Supreme Court.
“The final decision on the constitutionality of the gaming statute will not be made by the district court. Sending the case there for a ruling only slows down resolution of these important issues.”
Morrison said the high court has repeatedly taken cases like this one.
A final court ruling against the law would derail current efforts to expand gambling in Kansas.
But a favorable ruling would clear the way for the state and developers to build state-owned casinos in four areas — Wyandotte, Sumner and Ford counties and either Crawford or Cherokee county.
The Kansas Expanded Lottery Act, passed in March, also allows slot machines at The Woodlands racetrack in Wyandotte County and a pari-mutuel dog track in Frontenac.
“This decision will slow things down by probably three months,” said Sen. Chris Steineger, a Kansas City, Kan., Democrat and gambling supporter.
But Wyandotte County’s Unified Government chief counsel, Hal Walker, said the delay “could be 18 months or two years.”
“We’re not going to get the quick decision we wanted,” Walker said. “It’s certainly unfortunate.”
Walker said it was unclear what might happen now with the Unified Government’s Monday deadline for applications to manage a state-owned casino in Wyandotte County.
“The Kansas Lottery Commission will have to look at the urgency of some of these deadlines,” he said.
Lottery director Ed Van Petten said Thursday that there were no plans yet to slow down the process.
“The court could order an injunction to prevent us from going forward,” he said. “But until that time we plan to move forward.”
At least one would-be Kansas casino operator is not panicking.
“Any delay, of course, is a concern,” said Eric Schippers, spokesman for Penn National Gaming, which operates Argosy Casino Hotel & Spa in Riverside and has already filed its application for a casino management deal in the southeast Kansas zone.
“But this news doesn’t really alter our plan,” he said. “You typically see these challenges in new gaming jurisdictions.”
Under the gambling law and the state constitution, legalized lotteries and gambling must be “owned and operated” by the state.
Opponents argue the new law is unconstitutional because the Kansas Lottery Commission would contract with private companies to develop, pay for and manage the casinos.
The state’s reservation casino tribes and others could file their own challenges to the law. The Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe has already asked to intervene in Morrison’s challenge, arguing that the attorney general might not pursue the case against the state law vigorously enough.
Rep. Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican and gambling opponent, said sending the lawsuit to the district court will provide more time for debate and arguments over the facts.
“I’m not disturbed by going through the normal process,” he said.
Kinzer said it might be helpful for judges to see some of the actual contracts between the state and casino developers to better understand that relationship.
The Potawatomi tribe’s motion made the same point.
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