KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? The Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma claimed Friday that a federal court ruling opens the door for the resumption of gambling at a closed casino in downtown Kansas City, Kan.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, based in Topeka, ruled late Thursday that the National Indian Gaming Commission acted improperly when it found that the Wyandottes had no legal right to operate the tiny casino housed in siding-clad trailers attached to an old Masonic lodge.

The trailers have since been removed, leaving only an asphalt pad, and chain link fencing surrounds the area where they once stood.

Shortly after the NIGC sent a letter to the tribe in March 2004 explaining its position, state authorities shut down the casino and hauled off about 150 gambling machines. The Wyandottes appealed. The tribe resided in what became Kansas City, Kan. – in Wyandotte County – for 11 years in the mid-1800s.

“The court’s decision appears to clear the way for the tribe to resume gaming activity on the Shriner Tract,” the tribe’s attorney, Conly J. Schulte, of Omaha, Neb., said in a news release.

The ruling is the third in favor of the tribe in recent months. Among the wins was an April ruling by the 10th District U.S. Court of Appeals in which a three-judge panel found that the state had no jurisdiction to shut down the casino because it is on Indian lands.

“We are ecstatic. We are extremely pleased,” Schulte, the lead counsel in the tribe’s casino litigation, said in a telephone interview.

The NIGC, which could appeal Thursday’s ruling, did not immediately return messages left after hours Friday seeking comment.

The most recent ruling dealt with whether the tribe complied with a federal law that bars tribes from placing casinos on lands acquired after 1988 unless the lands meet one of several exceptions. One of those exceptions is if the lands were acquired as part of a land claim settlement.

The tribe said it met the exception because it purchased the lands on which the casino is located using money obtained from a settlement case. The NIGC had held that the land did not qualify for that exception because the tribe was awarded money instead of land in an Indian claims court proceeding.

Robinson sided with the tribe in Thursday’s ruling, noting that Congress had ordered that part of the money obtained from the settlement be used to buy land for the tribe.

The tribe does not need to negotiate a compact with the state to operate a casino because the machines it uses are classified as bingo and bingo-like machines, though they look and play like slot machines.

The distinction is important because facilities with slot machines are required to negotiate gaming compacts with the state, while facilities with bingo machines are not.

Schulte said he was still consulting with the tribe about the reopening of the casino. Other appeals are pending.