Judge orders Bay Mills’ Vanderbilt casino to close

March 29, 2011 at 1:24p.m.

DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge ordered the closure of the Bay Mills Indian Community’s casino in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula today while he decides if it is operating illegally as another tribe claims.

Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo issued a preliminary injunction ordering the casino in Vanderbilt, which opened in November, to close by midday.

The casino is located about 125 miles south of the Bay Mills reservation which is in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Opponents say it is not legal because it’s not located on Indian land.