WASHINGTON - Several American Indian tribes could still have a chance to build off-reservation casinos under a loophole included in a Senate bill aimed at banning the practice.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and passed by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on March 29, is intended to eliminate off-reservation gambling for tribes with their own reservation land. But the bill says applications filed before April 15 - two weeks after the committee meeting - would be grandfathered into current law.

An Interior Department document obtained by the Associated Press shows several pending applications could be approved under that exception.

About 40 applications for off-reservation casinos are listed on the document, dated May 2006. Fourteen of the applications are dated between March 29 and April 15.

George Skibine, the Interior department official in charge of policy and economic development for Indian Affairs, confirmed that the list was compiled by his office. Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said the applications are pending and there is no guarantee that any of them will be approved.

"It's a long process," she said.

At the Senate hearing, McCain said he favored using March 29 as the cutoff date for applications. But several senators argued that some tribes might be in the final stages of submitting their applications, and McCain agreed to change the date, with one caveat: That he would change the date back to March 29 on the Senate floor if a rush of applications showed up before April 15.

His office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., who is a member of the Indian Affairs Committee, said Thursday that he would try to amend the proposal on the floor to move the date back to March 29.

Currently, tribes are allowed to build casinos off their reservations if they are approved by the interior secretary and the state's governor. The legislation was prompted by an increasing number of tribes who have sought more lucrative locations for their casinos - a trend some have dubbed "reservation-shopping."

The vast majority of the nation's 400-plus tribal casinos, which brought in $18.5 billion in 2004, were built on existing reservation land. As Indian casinos have boomed, tribes have looked beyond their borders for better locations.

One of the pending applications is from North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Though the Interior Department document says the tribe's application is dated April 11, Bill Johnson, a member of the tribe, said the application actually was submitted to a state office in late March.

He said that his tribe needs the economic boost that the proposed casino near Grand Forks would provide.

"We're not one of those tribes you should put into the group you say is reservation shopping," he said.

Local residents disagree.

"We don't want them here," said Jerry Hjelden, a Grand Forks resident leading a petition drive against the casino. "We'd end up with $8 million in social costs for all of the addiction it will create."

Hjelden said his group plans to turn in petitions Monday to the Grand Forks City Council with more than 4,200 names opposing the casino.

Under the bill, landless or newly recognized tribes still would be able to build casinos on land to which they have historical, geographical and other ties. The bill tightens restrictions for those proposals, requiring more public comment.