Topeka ? The U.S. Department of Interior has dealt another setback to the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma’s decades-old struggle to open a full-scale casino in the state that was once its tribal home.

On Thursday, the agency’s deputy secretary for Indian Affairs, Kevin Washburn, formally notified the Wyandotte that it would not accept into trust a 10-acre parcel in suburban Wichita that the tribe had purchased in 1991 in hopes of developing a casino.

The Wyandotte currently operate what is called a Class II casino in downtown Kansas City, Kan., meaning it offers only electronic bingo machines that look similar to slot machines.

The 7th Street Casino is adjacent to a former Masonic hall, across the street from the Huron Cemetery where many victims of the tribe’s forced removal from Ohio in 1842 are buried.

The Wyandotte were later removed from Kansas in 1867 and sent to settle in present-day Oklahoma, where they operate a large, full-scale casino on tribal land in the city that bears their name.

Under the 1988 federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, tribes are allowed to conduct Class I “social” gaming and Class II operations such as bingo and other similar games on land within a reservation or other land owned by the tribe or its members that is under federal jurisdiction.

But Class III gaming, which includes black jack, slot machines and other games of chance, are allowed only on tribal land in states that allow Class III gaming elsewhere. And in those cases, the tribes must negotiate a gaming compact with the host state.

Kansas qualifies as such a state because it owns and operates a state lottery. But it has long opposed efforts by the Wyandotte to open a casino, arguing that the state recognizes only the four tribes with reservations in the state: the Prairie Band Pottawatomie, Sac and Fox, Kickapoo and Delaware tribes.

In a letter dated July 3, the Department of Interior’s assistant secretary for Indian Affairs said he was not convinced, based on accounting records, that the tribe had purchased the $25,000 parcel solely with money derived from the settlement of a land claim — a claim originating from disputes over the property in Kansas City.

Tribal officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether they intend to appeal the decision.

But Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said he was pleased with the decision.

“This decision is one more successful step in defending Kansas law, which does not allow a tribal casino in Sedgwick County,” Schmidt said. “If there are later efforts by the tribe or others to contest the department’s denial of the application, we will continue to vigorously defend our state’s legal interests.”