Penn National Gaming has until Tuesday to respond to an Iowa Supreme Court ruling that stayed a Polk County District Court order earlier this month that put a hold on the license granted to the company building a land-based casino in Sioux City. Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Administrator Brian Ohorilko says the commission and Sioux City Entertainment sought action from the Supreme Court. Ohorilko says he can’t comment on a lot of the strategy surrounding the legal action in the case at this point in time.

The IRGC opened up the license process for the land-based casino after Penn National and the non-profit running the riverboat casino could not come to an operating agreement. Penn National sued after its proposal for the land-based casino was not chosen. Ohorilko says the commission stands by its decision.

“We still believe in our actions, we still believe strongly in those actions and we feel that we acted appropriately and will continue to defend those actions,” Ohorilko says.

The original timeline has the casino scheduled to open in July, but the district court order would have delayed that at least until  December of 2014. The district court order dealt with the awarding of the license to operate the casino, but did not prevent the developers from continuing construction.

(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)