GARY, Ind. (AP) — Gary’s mayor says he is ready to meet with representatives of the Miami Nation of Oklahoma to discuss their proposal to open a land-based casino in the northwestern Indiana city.

Mayor Scott King said he hopes to arrange a meeting this week to discuss the results of a marketing study.

‘‘I plan to share the information and discuss the next step,’’ King said.

The report offers Lake Charles, La., as a comparable market area where traditional riverboat gambling and Indian casinos coexist, King said.

The Lake Charles area gambling market includes a pair of two-boat casino complexes and a tribal casino run by the Coushattas at nearby Kinder.

All existing casinos in Indiana operate from boats on the Ohio River and Lake Michigan. Lawmakers rejected a proposal for a land-based casino near French Lick during this year’s special legislative session.

King has been negotiating with the Miami Nation since April, when the tribe’s attorneys sent a letter asserting claims to land in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and St. Joseph counties under treaties signed in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and seeking to establish a casino.

The Miami Nation is not affiliated with Indiana’s Miamis, who have not been federally recognized as a tribe since the two groups split in 1846.

Officials from the region’s riverboat casinos have been critical of the negotiations, saying Indian gambling venues have a competitive advantage because they pay little or no tax.

‘‘We can’t deal with competition on an unlevel playing field,’’ said Rick Mazer, senior vice president and general manager of Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.

Jim Dittoe, a spokesman for the Miami Nation of Oklahoma, said Friday no date for a meeting with King has been set.

c2002 Michigan City News Dispatch