{"id":91315,"date":"2018-10-26T06:07:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T13:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=91315"},"modified":"2018-10-26T06:07:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T13:07:38","slug":"ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border, Despite Federal Lawsuit to Stop It"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska has discovered, the problem with developing a tribal border casino is you\u2019re in danger of being sued by two states instead of just one.<\/p>\n

\"Ponca\"
Still standing: A statue of famous tribal chief Standing Bear whose daughter, Prairie Flower, lends her name to the casino. Because of a geographical quirk, the Iowa border casino is almost completely surrounded by gamble-free Nebraska. (Image: Indianz.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nevertheless, the tribe announced Thursday it will open its Prairie Flower Casino in Carter Lake, Iowa, at noon on November 1, despite a pending federal legal challenge from both Nebraska, Iowa, and the City of Council Bluffs.<\/a><\/p>\n

The project\u2019s first phase will include 9,500 square feet of space and 200 slot-style games, according to a press release.<\/p>\n

Eleven-Year Legal Battle<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The casino is named for the daughter of the famous Ponca tribal chief Standing Bear, and the tribe is hoping that it will emulate Standing Bear\u2019s success in a federal courtroom when the case comes to be heard.<\/p>\n

In 1879, Standing Bear successfully argued that a US District Court that Native Americans were \u201cpersons within the meaning of the law,\u201d winning the right of habeus corpus.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue that the plot of land in Carter Lake is not eligible for a casino because it is not part of the lands restored to the tribe by an act of Congress in 1990 — the Ponca purchased the land in 1999.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The lawsuit names the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) and the Department of the Interior as defendants.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs successfully sued to halt the project in 2007, after it had been approved by the NIGC, but an appellate court sent the proposal back to the NIGC where it had been under consideration until last year, when it was rubberstamped again.<\/p>\n

Nebraska\u2019s Problem<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Iowa is concerned about the threat the Prairie Flower poses to existing commercial casino operations in the area, which could ultimately eat into tax revenues. Nebraska, meanwhile, prohibits casino gaming<\/a> and does not want another facility on its doorstep.<\/p>\n

As the Omaha World-Herald<\/em> explains, \u201cCarter Lake is a geographical anomaly, a 2-square-mile piece of Iowa territory that is west of the Missouri River \u2014 and almost surrounded by Nebraska \u2014 because of a change in the river\u2019s course in 1877.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as Nebraska is concerned the Prairie Flower may as well be \u201cin\u201d Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince one cannot travel to or from Carter Lake without traveling through Nebraska, this means that Carter Lake\u2019s gambling problem will become Nebraska\u2019s gambling problem,\u201d said Suzanne Gage, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska AG\u2019s office in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska has discovered, the problem with developing a tribal border casino is you\u2019re in danger of being sued by two states instead of just one. Nevertheless, the tribe announced Thursday it will open its Prairie Flower Casino in Carter Lake, Iowa, at noon on November 1, despite a pending federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":91316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,18,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPonca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ponca Tribe\u2019s Prairie Flower casino will open in Carter Lake, Iowa, even though both Iowa and Nebraska have sued in a bid to torpedo the project.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ponca Tribe\u2019s Prairie Flower casino will open in Carter Lake, Iowa, even though both Iowa and Nebraska have sued in a bid to torpedo the project.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-26T13:07:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"727\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/\",\"name\":\"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-26T13:07:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-26T13:07:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Ponca Tribe\u2019s Prairie Flower casino will open in Carter Lake, Iowa, even though both Iowa and Nebraska have sued in a bid to torpedo the project.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":727,\"caption\":\"Still standing: A statue of famous tribal chief Standing Bear whose daughter, Prairie Flower, lends her name to the casino. Because of a geographical quirk, the Iowa border casino is almost completely surrounded by gamble-free Nebraska. (Image: Indianz.com)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tribal Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border, Despite Federal Lawsuit to Stop It\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border","description":"Ponca Tribe\u2019s Prairie Flower casino will open in Carter Lake, Iowa, even though both Iowa and Nebraska have sued in a bid to torpedo the project.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border","og_description":"Ponca Tribe\u2019s Prairie Flower casino will open in Carter Lake, Iowa, even though both Iowa and Nebraska have sued in a bid to torpedo the project.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2018-10-26T13:07:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":727,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/","name":"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png","datePublished":"2018-10-26T13:07:38+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-26T13:07:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Ponca Tribe\u2019s Prairie Flower casino will open in Carter Lake, Iowa, even though both Iowa and Nebraska have sued in a bid to torpedo the project.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/STANDING.png","width":1200,"height":727,"caption":"Still standing: A statue of famous tribal chief Standing Bear whose daughter, Prairie Flower, lends her name to the casino. Because of a geographical quirk, the Iowa border casino is almost completely surrounded by gamble-free Nebraska. (Image: Indianz.com)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ponca-tribal-casino-to-open-on-nebraska-iowa-border\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tribal Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ponca Tribal Casino to Open on Nebraska-Iowa Border, Despite Federal Lawsuit to Stop It"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}