Kansas Tribe Sues State Lottery For Selling Tickets On Tribal Lands

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the Kansas Lottery from selling lottery tickets and operating lottery machines on tribal lands.

Monday’s legal filing, as described in a press release issued Tuesday by the tribe, accuses the lottery of “violating the Nation’s sovereignty by selling state-operated lottery tickets and operating state-operated lottery machines at about two dozen locations within the Nation’s reservation boundaries.”

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas cites the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), the 1988 law establishing the jurisdictional framework for gambling on Indian lands, and argues that the state of Kansas is not authorized to sell tickets on the reservation.

“Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has been a valuable partner to the state of Kansas and to the four counties where our land sits — through partnership, job creation, and as an economic engine,” Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation tribal council chairman, said in a statement. “At a minimum we expect state and local governments to adhere to the treaties that have cemented our boundaries for centuries, affirming our sovereignty on what’s always been our land.” 

The lawsuit is not seeking monetary damages. Rather, its stated primary aim is to stop the Kansas Lottery from licensing sales at these locations on tribal lands.

Before filing the lawsuit …

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation said that in May and June it “sent multiple written notices” to Kansas Lottery Executive Director Stephen Durrell about the alleged violations. It initiated a meeting involving a lawyer representing the tribe, a lawyer representing the Kansas Lottery, and a representative from the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, but nothing was resolved and the lottery sales continue.

WIBW 13 reported that the Kansas Lottery told the local media outlet it was “unable to comment on the matter at this time.”

In addition to seeking to halt the lottery sales, the lawsuit is also asking the court to declare that the Potawatomi Nation’s 900-square-mile reservation has never been diminished or disestablished and remains “Indian land” under federal law. The release states that the United States “in 1846 promised the Potawatomi Nation that their new Kansas reservation ‘would be their land and home forever.”’