After more than a decade of legal wrangling, including a lawsuit filed by the State of Kansas, the Wyandotte Nation will finally see its CrossWinds Casino open in Park City on March 2, 2021.

The 20,000 square foot casino is located at 777 N Jackpot Way in Sedgwick County and will reportedly feature 500 new slots, 200 Class II VGT machines with Red Spins, a high limit lounge, and a bar and café.

Kelly Carpino, Chief Executive Officer for the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma (WTOK), the economic arm of the federally recognized tribe, said their team is excited to introduce the new casino to Park City and the surrounding communities and that like all of its gaming properties the focus is on providing “a fun, clean atmosphere with fan favorite slots and great customer service,” and is “ready to deliver that same experience” to all of its guests, as reported by local news station KWCH 12.

Benefits to tribe:

CrossWinds Casino will reportedly employ 150 people from within the local community and provide them with health benefits, according to the source.

Chief of the Wyandotte Nation, Billy Friend, said the tribe’s fourth casino will provide the tribe’s citizens economic self-sufficiency, improved health care, education, housing, and other programs that are greatly needed.

Friend added that over the years Park City’s redevelopment plans have been a success and has welcomed the tribe as partners. He added that in addition to creating jobs for the area, the new casino will bring “increased revenue through tourism, and create new opportunities for additional development.”

Decades-long battle:

The casino opening next month follows a long-drawn-out legal battle with the State of Kansas over the tribe’s legal authority to build a casino on a 10-acre parcel of land in Park City purchased by the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma in 1992.

Located in Sumner County in the city of Mulvane about 30 miles from the Kansas Star, the state’s only casino authorized by state law in South Central Kansas, both the county and city joined the state in its lawsuit filed on August 10, 2020, against top officials at the U.S. Department of Interior, as did the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

Filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas, the lawsuit asked the court to set aside an earlier decision by the federal executive department allowing the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma to build and operate a casino on the parcel in Park City purchased by the tribe nearly three decades earlier. The regulatory steps taken by the Department of the Interior in May 2020 reversed its 2014 decision rejecting the tribe’s request to build a casino on the land.

Tribal enterprises:

In addition to several small businesses and food and beverage locations, WTOK is responsible for the 7th Street Casino in Kansas City, Kansas, Lucky Turtle Casino in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, and the much larger River Bend Casino & Hotel, formerly Wyandotte Nation Casino, also in Wyandotte.