Industry experts not optimistic about Ilitch Shinnecock plans for New York Casino

6.30.09

Tribe told not to expect quick results on gaming

By Michael Wright

The East Hampton Press

A settlement of a key portion of a legal battle between the Shinnecock Indian Nation and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs fed widespread media speculation that the Shinnecocks and their Detroit-based financial backers [Marian Ilitch and Michael J. Malik, Sr.] are now on a fast track to opening a gaming facility in New York City or on Long Island.

But even though a court-ordered ruling on the tribe’s federal recognition application—the key step to gaming rights—is due by December, and the tribe could get the federal go-ahead by mid-2010, many in the New York gaming industry say the hurdles Shinnecocks face are numerous, and significant.

At a gaming industry conference in Saratoga Springs last week, a host of industry veterans and even members of other Native American tribes from around the state said—often with wry smiles—that they’re not holding their breath for a Shinnecock casino to open. Nonetheless, the tribe and its prospects for a casino on Long Island, or in the shadow of New York City, were a popular topic of conversation.

The Shinnecocks’ casino bid and the speculation that the court settlement spawned were a main focus of the keynote speech given by John D. Sabini, chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board at the two-day New York Gaming Summit. He said that gaming prospects have seemed imminent in the past and ended up languishing for decades.

“I don’t think it’s a slam-dunk that they even get federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Department of the Interior,” Mr. Sabini said of the Shinnecocks in his keynote speech. “There are no sure things in gaming. This involves a lot of moving parts at the federal level.”

In an interview, Mr. Sabini noted that earning federal recognition is just the first step in a complicated battle for the tribe to get rights to a casino operation. He nodded to the cautionary tales told by the leaders of three other Native American tribes—the Seneca, Oneida and St. Regis Mohawks—all of whom have had federal recognition for 
years, even decades, and are still fighting to get approval for casinos that they thought would be open for business years ago.

“Some newspapers said [the court settlement] would mean they have the inside track for Belmont. There’s so much between here and there,” Mr. Sabini said, of a report that the tribe had expressed interest in a gaming facility adjacent to the Nassau County horse racing venue. “[State Assembly Speaker Sheldon] Silver has been clear—he doesn’t want gaming there.”

The State Legislature has already approved gaming through the use of up to 4,500 video lottery machines, or VLTs, at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens. State representatives of the areas surrounding Belmont Racetrack have also introduced proposals to allow gaming—a potential tax revenue bounty—in their backyard as well. But Mr. Silver, who represents Lower Manhattan in the State Assembly, has sworn he will never support gaming at the Belmont property.

In 2007, shortly after the state opened bidding on the Aqueduct gaming contract, the tribe proposed a $1.4 billion casino and hotel adjacent to the Queens racetrack. But at last week’s state gaming conference, Bill Murray, the deputy director of the New York Lottery, which will license any future gaming operations at the racetrack, said that the state is close to deciding on one of the seven official bidders for gaming there. The Shinnecocks are not on the list of bidders—though the development company Delaware North, which sponsored the gaming conference, is. Mr. Murray said the decision on the contract will be made in a matter of weeks, effectively eliminating the Shinnecocks, since the tribe will not receive federal recognition until 2010 at the earliest.

Shinnecock Indian Nation Tribal Trustee Fred Bess turned a bit of the naysayers’ own warnings back on them, though, with regard to the Aqueduct proposal.

“Things take a long time to happen,” he said when asked if Aqueduct was off the tribe’s radar because of the timeline Mr. Murray suggested. “Once we take care of our federal recognition application, we’ll see where things stand.”

This is the first part of a three-part series on the Shinnecock Indian Nation and its possible future in the gaming industry.

New Tax Proposed on New York Tribes

5.02.08

Where there's smoke, there's fire
by Rob Capriccioso

ALBANY, N.Y - New York Gov. David Paterson, just a few weeks after taking office, is already thinking about collecting sales taxes on cigarettes sold by tribes. It's a path many of his predecessors have unsuccessfully pursued, and several tribal leaders predict Paterson, too, will likely face challenges...

''The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is sensitive to the economic woes of the state,'' according to a statement released by the tribe's council in response to Paterson's radio remarks. ''

However, the state should not be trying to bail itself out on the backs of Indian tribes [and] nations in the state.'' Mohawk council leaders also said they do not believe the governor should be making public comments concerning tribes without first reaching out to tribes to discuss his concerns. ''That is counterproductive to building positive government-to-government relationships between us,'' according to the statement...

Representatives of the Shinnecock Indian Nation said they wanted to take a wait-and-see approach regarding Paterson's plans... (Full Story)

Reservations Rebuffed: Off-Reservation Gaming Policy

3.23.08

Reservations Rebuffed

By Shawn Zeller, CQ Staff

Tribal casinos, which have bulked into a multibillion-dollar industry since Congress first gave them its blessing two decades ago, now possess all sorts of economic and political clout — but not enough, it seems, for them to go off the reservation.

American Indians marooned on reservations far from population centers have long pressed the Interior Department to grant them the authority to launch gambling operations closer to where the people willing to risk their money live — and rake in the sort of revenues that the more fortuitously situated tribes have enjoyed.

These tribes argue that the mass repatriation of Indians onto federal reservations in the 19th century was originally an unjust process driven by little more than federal fiat and so shouldn’t form any basis for sound policy now. What’s more, they argue, tribes now flush with gambling money, such as Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, came into possession of optimally sited reservation land via controversial treaties that often had little or nothing to do with the location of ancestral land.

But in January top Interior officials wrote to rebuff 11 tribes that were waiting on applications to acquire new land for casinos. (Eleven others were told their applications were incomplete.) At the same time Interior made public a new policy that, in the tribes’ view, makes it nearly impossible for them to win approval for any desirable off-reservation site.

Their letters contended that siting casinos too far from existing reservations would not produce meaningful employment opportunities to tribe members — a claim the petitioning tribes hotly dispute.

“When I received the notice, I hit the roof,” says Lorraine White, chief of New York’s St. Regis Mohawks. “It is completely contrary to our belief about the law.” The Mohawks, whose reservation is on the Canadian border, have plans with Empire Resorts Inc. to construct a 125-table, 3,500-slot-machine casino 350 miles to the south in the Catskill Mountains — less than a two-hour drive from Manhattan — and had secured the backing of local leaders and the state of New York.

What usually does off-reservation casinos in is opposition from local communities, as opposed to policy judgment calls from Washington. But the sweep of this year’s rejections by Interior suggests the federal consensus is hardening further against off-reservation gambling. And Interior’s new policy “makes impossible what was already nearly impossible,” says I. Nelson Rose, a law professor at California’s Whittier Law School who specializes in gambling.

In setting the policy, Interior cited a 1934 law intended to promote reservations as economic hubs for tribes. Under that law, the department says, it must subject off-reservation sites to greater critical scrutiny — the more so if they’re far removed from a tribe’s reservation. Applying that reasoning to the pending casino operations, Interior ruled that gaming facilities that are not within commuting distance of a reservation, apparently about 75 miles, could undermine reservation life.

“Interior essentially said they know better what’s good for the tribe than the tribe does,” says Tom Shields, a spokesman for California’s Los Coyotes Band of Mission Indians, who have been seeking for years to build a casino in Barstow, 150 miles north of their reservation and a couple of hours by car from Los Angeles. That tribe’s plan has overwhelming local support, Shields contends, but it was among the 22 nixed in January.

Interior spokesman Shane Wolfe said he could not comment on the policy change because of pending litigation. Wisconsin’s St. Croix Chippewa filed suit in federal district court in Washington in December charging Interior with violating Congress’ intent in the 1988 law sanctioning Indian gambling.

The Mohawks also filed suit in January but have since dropped the case, White says, in order to step up efforts to lobby Congress on the issue. West Virginia Democrat Nick J. Rahall II , the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced a bill this month that would mandate a consultative process with Indian tribes before Interior could adopt further changes.

The federal government has “a moral obligation” to consult with the tribes, Rahall says; the Bush administration’s handling of the issue, he adds, evinces “a clear disregard for that legal, political and moral responsibility.”

Interior Secretary Kempthorne denies casinos; proposed sites too far from reservations

1.05.08

Interior Secretary Rejects Catskill Casino Plans

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

The federal government rejected plans for two casinos in the Catskill Mountains on Friday, saying that the reservations of the two tribes that submitted the plans were too far from where the casinos would be built.

The decision was a major setback in the 30-year effort to bring gambling to Sullivan County, which proponents hoped would breathe new life into the area’s depressed economy.

One of the proposed casinos, at Monticello Raceway, received the support of Gov. Eliot Spitzer and was expected to attract six million visitors a year, generate 3,000 jobs and provide New York State with an estimated $100 million a year. But the plans faced intense opposition from the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups, and required the final approval of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

On Friday, Mr. Kempthorne sent a letter to the St. Regis Mohawk tribe saying that the proposed casino in Monticello was too far from its Akwesasne Reservation, which is about 300 miles away, near Massena, on the Canadian border. He also sent a nearly identical letter to the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe, which is based in Wisconsin and had planned to build a large casino in the town of Thompson, not far from Monticello.

Mr. Kempthorne, who has long opposed Indian casinos on nonreservation land, said in his letters that the casinos would be too far away to offer jobs to tribal residents and that forcing residents to relocate would hurt the reservations.

“The departure of a significant number of reservation residents and their families could have serious and far-reaching implications for the remaining tribal community and its continuity as a community,” he said in the letters.

In a statement released Friday night, the Natural Resources Defense Council called the decision a major victory and said the casinos would have burdened the Catskills with pollution, traffic congestion and sprawl.

Representative Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat from New York who has strongly supported the proposed casinos, said proponents of the plans would not give up. “It is clear that the next opportunity for these proposed casinos to move forward and be objectively evaluated will be under a new administration by a different secretary of the interior, who under current law has the final determination in this matter at this time,” he said in a statement.

Interior to take distance and history into account when considering off-reservation gaming applications

11.13.07

Let the games begin
St. Regis sues Kempthorne; NIGC's 'bright line' between classes II and III

Tom Wanamaker / Indian Country Today

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Frustrated with continued delays in the processing of its application for a casino in New York's Catskill Mountains, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has filed a federal lawsuit against Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

The secretary, a former Republican governor of Idaho, is on record as opposing ''off-reservation'' casinos. The St. Regis application for a casino at Monticello has been ready since last February, and despite approval from New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Kempthorne has taken no action on it. Over the past several months, Mohawk leaders have repeatedly requested meetings with him; they have not been given the courtesy of an answer, much less a decision.

But we may have a clue as to Interior's future take on this supposed ''reservation shopping.'' On Oct. 1, Legal Times newspaper revealed the text of a letter sent to tribes with pending ''off-reservation'' casino applications by Interior Deputy Associate Secretary James Cason. In the letter, Legal Times reported that Cason said Interior is pondering a model ''where the likelihood of accepting off-reservation land into trust decreases with the distance the subject parcel is from the Tribe's established reservation or ancestral lands, and the majority of tribal members.'' [emphasis added]

Apparently geography matters. So the question now becomes: ''Will Interior take history into account?''

The ancestral Mohawk homeland lies along the majestic river that today bears the tribe's name. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, encroaching colonial settlers forced most Mohawks out of the area. Today, the tribe's sole American reservation is at Akwesasne, which sits along the St. Lawrence River, roughly 225 miles due north of Monticello as the crow flies. Other recognized bands of Mohawks reside in Ontario and Quebec.

But the ancestral Mohawk homeland lies only some 75 miles north of Monticello, one-third of the distance to Akwesasne. All ''off-reservation'' Indian casino applications are different, each with its merits and circumstances.

Cason's model should not be the sole deciding factor in the St. Regis application, or any application for that matter. But if it is going to play a role, Interior must take the historical displacement of tribes from their homelands into account. Many Indian nations, through no fault of their own, are today located on reservations distant from their original homes. If geography is to be a critical determinant in deciding the fate of a tribal casino, historical factors must carry equal or greater weight.

Proposed regulations

The National Indian Gaming Commission in late October issued a set of proposed regulations intended to clarify the distinction between Class II and Class III gaming machines.

The basic difference between the classes can be boiled down to whom the player is competing against. If the machine is linked to others and players play against each other, it's a Class II game. If the player is playing against the house, it's a Class III game. But the technological complexity of many new gaming devices; the fact that machines of different classes may appear to be identical, legal challenges regarding the classification of certain games; and confusion over whether a machine itself is the game or merely a tool through which to play the game has forced the need for a clearer demarcation between the two classes.

''These proposed standards will clarify the distinction between the technological aids tribes may use to play Class II games - bingo and the like - which may be utilized without compacts with their states, from that equipment used for the play of Class III games, such as slot machines, which may only be played when there is an approved tribal/state compact for that activity,'' said NIGC Chairman Philip Hogen in an Oct. 24 press release.

Hogen stressed the need for a clear distinction, a ''bright line,'' between the classes, citing disputes over technology that could challenge the ''dominant market position'' that many gaming tribes hold in Class II.

''Those challenges could come in the way of allegations that technology for Class II has gone beyond its limit,'' he said in the release. ''It could come as well by increased competition for this market where states expand their limits on bingo-type technology, if they see no meaningful constraints on tribal activity in this area.''

Of equal significance might be the potential impact on revenue sharing. Tribes offering Class III games must, of course, enter a tribal/state compact. Such compacts, more often than not, contain provisions for tribes to pay some percentage of their profits to the state that surrounds them.

But Class II gaming requires no tribal/state compact - tribes may offer Class II games free from state oversight and without revenue sharing. Thus anything perceived as weakening Class II and strengthening Class III gives gaming tribes the impression that state hands will sink deeper into their pocketbooks. Hogen said that the proposed rules should allay such fears.

''Bingo and Class II gaming is the bedrock upon which Indian gaming was built, and its integrity needs to be maintained,'' Hogen said. ''With the bright line that will be drawn when these regulations are finalized, tribes may confidently invest in equipment, lenders concerns over challenges in this area will be allayed, and tribes will have a clearer basis from which to negotiate with states for Class III compacts.''

To view the proposed regulations, visit www.nigc.gov. The regulator will accept public comments on them for 45 days after their publication in the Federal Register.

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416079

Sen. Schumer’s office trying to show Interior Secretary Kempthorne why St. Regis Mohawk casino should fly

8.06.07

Mid-Hudson News Network

Washington – There is a full court press on Interior Secretary Kempthorne in an effort to pursuade him to approve an off-reservation Native American casino at Monticello.

Most recently, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which wants to build the facility, asked the secretary for a sit-down to discuss it with him.

US Senator Charles Schumer is also in the lobbying effort. He met with Kempthorne recently and told him he wants to justify why the secretary should sign off on it.

"He has a western view of things where the reservations are thousands of miles," he said. Kempthorne told Schumer he had 32 off-reservation casino applications and if he does the Monticello proposal, he would have to do them all. Schumer asked him to “let us show you why this one is different.” The catch is Schumer has his staff researching all 32 applications.

If Kempthorne is leaning toward disapproval of the application, Schumer would just as soon have him wait.

"If it’s going to be a bad decision, and I don’t know that it is at this point, it might be better to wait rather than to get a ‘no’ and have to start everything all over, but we’re not ready for that yet."

If approved, the casino would be built in partnership with Empire Resorts, owners of Monticello Raceway, which already has a video slot machine operation at the track.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/casino_Shumer-06Aug07.html

Secretary Kempthorne true to form hasn't approved Catskills casino

6.12.07

Catskill casino a waiting game
By Victor Whitman

Times Herald-Record

Monticello — It's been nearly five months since Gov. Eliot Spitzer OK'd a Catskill casino, in what many saw as a watershed moment.

Now, five months later, the paperwork is ready to go, but still no word from Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on whether he'll approve the St. Regis Mohawk casino at Monticello Gaming & Raceway.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs completed its review more than a month ago.

"Governor Spitzer has spoken on several occasions to Secretary Kempthorne, and he'll continue to press the secretary for his approval," Spitzer's spokeswoman, Christine Pritchard, said. "The conversations were substantive in nature, including the governor's explanation as to why the casino would benefit both the tribe and New York state."

Kempthorne is touring Guam and other American possessions in the Pacific. Spitzer is planning another call when Kempthorne returns this week.

"The Tribe has remained confident and optimistic ," the Mohawks said in a statement yesterday. "We are hopeful approval is in fact imminent."

BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling said that the paperwork is now on the desk of James Cason, a top Interior official who is regarded by the Mohawks and casino supporters in Congress as friendly to the project. He will make a recommendation to the secretary. But Kempthorne opposes off-reservation casinos, concerned that if he approves one, he must approve them all.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer says he doesn't have a good sense of what Kempthorne will do. Kempthorne still must agree to take just less than 30 acres of land into trust. With roughly 30 applications pending across the country for off-reservation casinos, Schumer fears Kempthorne might take no action, delaying the decision for at least another 18 months.

"There will be little to gauge the process at this point until the final call is made," said Charlie Degliomini, a vice president with Empire Resorts, owners of the Raceway.

"This application is under active and imminent consideration. From our perspective, failure is not an option."

Casino approval would rest with Secretary of Interior

Cason said final approval is not guaranteed, noting that the casino would be 450 miles from the tribe's reservation and that the department was worried about the proliferation of off-reservation casinos. Sources in government say Kempthorne is behind the tough talk."I think Secretary Kempthorne is very appropriately and legitimately concerned a



read more digg story

Kempthorne delt 'spanking' to 42 tribes chasing off-reservation gambling

But now you can blame California tribes for the cold shoulder a Catskill casino is getting in Washington.In 2006 alone, tribes there filed 10 applications. To date, 19 California tribes want to build casinos, and 14 of those are off-reservation casinos. California has more than 50 Indian casinos located on reservations.

Earlier this year, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthrone dealt a spanking to all tribes with dreams of an off-reservation casino. Don't bet on approval, he told 42 tribes seeking casinos, including The St. Regis Mohawks, who want to build a casino at the Monticello Gaming & Raceway. In reality the Mohawks are caught in a backlash that is not of their making. The Mohawks submitted their original application for a casino at the track in 1999, the oldest on the books. In 2005 and 2006, though, tribes flooded the BIA with off-reservation proposals, attempting to beat new federal rules that might rule out any casino beyond 50 miles of the tribe's reservation. California has the most.


read more | digg story

02.21.07

Casino in the Catskills still facing roadblocks

Federal agency has questions about site

Yancey Roy/Albany bureau

ALBANY — Don't hold your breath, casino supporters.

Just because Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the St. Regis Mohawks reached a deal on opening the first casino in the Catskill Mountain region doesn't mean it's going to happen. The federal government must sign off on the pact and it has expressed concerns about sanctioning a gaming hall so far from the Mohawks' reservation.

In a December letter to the tribe, the U.S. Interior Department noted that the proposed site is in Monticello "over 450 miles from your reservation." Further, an agency official noted: "As we have discussed on several occasions, we share the concerns that many have expressed with off-reservation gaming and so-called 'reservation shopping.'"

Mohawk officials contend that Spitzer's backing could influence the federal government's decision — and become the tipping point that finally gets an Indian casino sited in the Catskills, more than five years after the Legislature authorized three casinos in the region. Also at stake are casino proposals from other tribes, especially the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohicans, who believe approval of the Mohawks casino would enhance their chances.

The Mohawks and Spitzer announced this week a pact that would sanction a casino at the Monticello Raceway in Sullivan County. The state would get up to 25 percent of the annual revenues of the 3,500 slot machines at the casino, a share that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

But there's a track record of casino agreements falling apart in New York. Most notably, previous Gov. George Pataki's deal with the Mohawks and four other tribes to build casinos in exchange for settling long-standing land-claim lawsuits was upended by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2005.

And the Mohawk deal still faces two hurdles: approval by the federal government and a lawsuit challenging the casino on environmental grounds.

In December, federal officials approved the tribe's environmental review of the project. But they also voiced serious concerns. The government would have to put the site, about 30 acres, "in trust" — effectively making it Indian land — to permit the deal.

James Cason, associate deputy secretary, noted that Congress has considered legislation that could significantly reduce the off-reservation options for tribes. .

"We anticipate changes to the rules that may result in fewer off-reservation properties being accepted into trust," Cason wrote. "In particular, we expect to consider a paradigm where the likelihood of accepting off-reservation land into trust decreases with the distance the subject parcel is from the tribe's established reservation or ancestral lands and the majority of tribal members. ... We wanted you to know that the statutory, regulatory and policy environment is changing."

New York's constitution bans casinos. But Native Americans can operate them on reservation lands. There are currently four Indian-run casinos in the state: Niagara Falls, Cattaraugus County, Oneida County and St. Lawrence County.

Yet tribal leaders are confident.

"Gov. Spitzer is very strongly behind this and is urging the Department of Interior" to approve the pact, said Leslie Logan, spokeswoman for the St. Regis Mohawks, who are based at the Akwesasne reservation in St. Lawrence County along the Canadian border and have operated a small casino there for years.

"Really, that is the thrust. We think (Spitzer) will carry some weight and move the process along," Logan said.

Meanwhile, the question remains as to whether the state will continue to pursue Catskill casino deals with other tribes. The Stockbridge-Munsees have a casino planned in Thompson, Sullivan County, have completed an environmental review and have lined up support from some local officials. The tribe claims the Catskills as part of their ancestral land.

Spitzer's aides didn't immediately return calls to comment. The leader of the Stockbridge-Munsees said that Spitzer's support for the Mohawks is not only a major step for them but also for eventually authorizing three casinos in the region, as the Legislature intended in 2001.

"We have met with the governor's staff," Stockbridge-Munsee president Bob Chicks said in a statement. "We look forward to working with them to right a century-old wrong done to our tribe, spur the economic revival of the Catskills and provide hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue to the State of New York."

YROY@Gannett.com

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS01/702210342/1002/NEWS

New York Sun Editorial
February 21, 2007

"The investigation is opening a window on the murky world of Indian gambling, Washington lobbying, money washing, and campaign finance. It also is a cautionary tale for New York, which has four Indian-run casinos and is considering adding at least four more." — Jack Newfield, "U.S. Investigating GOP Lobbyists With Ties To Indian-Run Casinos," page one, The New York Sun, September 8, 2004.

Newfield died just months after his dispatch warning of the Indian gambling and influence-peddling scandal that led to the felony guilty pleas of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the resignation of Tom DeLay and that helped cost the Republicans control of Congress. So one can only imagine what he would have thought to see Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat Newfield admired as attorney general, suddenly, as governor, throw that "cautionary tale" to the wind and move forward with plans for a casino in the Catskills to be run by the St. Regis Mohawk Indian nation. That tribe, while accused of no wrongdoing, has been up to its eyeballs in the political giving that seems to go with government-authorized gambling.

We have no problem with Indians, or anyone else, participating in the political process through campaign contributions. It is a First Amendment right. But if the idea is that allowing Indians to operate casinos is a kind of reparations for the treatment they have suffered, it seems illogical to make them pay for the privilege. Yet paying is exactly what they have been doing. New York's St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council gave $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in June of 2005, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The tribe has also been pouring money into New York State politics, with no clear ideological pattern. The tribe made a $500 campaign contribution to the Democrat who is now lieutenant governor, David Paterson, and $2,500 to the successful Assembly campaign of a Democrat who was an aide to Senator Clinton, Andrew Brockway. It put $3,900 into the successful campaign of another Assembly Democrat, Darrel Aubertine, whose government Web site features a press release hailing Governor Spitzer's "ethics reform package." The tribe has also contributed $4,000 in the past four years to the re-election campaigns of Senator Bruno and has given a total of $17,950 to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, according to state campaign finance records.

Mr. Spitzer may claim that all this makes the case for public financing of campaigns. Or he may say that the fact he is awarding a potentially lucrative gambling opportunity to a tribe that has been backing Mr. Bruno is evidence of the governor's integrity, as he isn't denying his political foes state contracts. Yet New Yorkers will see that a governor trying to cultivate a reputation as a reformer has several better options here than striking a treaty with the Mohawks. One would have been to open casino opportunities statewide to any business wanting to open one, thereby eliminating the need for would-be casino operators to try to purchase the favor of politicians. Another would have been not to open any new casinos, thus avoiding what Newfield so aptly and presciently described as a murky world.

http://www.nysun.com/article/49012

Gov. Spitzer approves Mohawk Indians' $600 million Catskills casino plan

---

February 20, 2007

Spitzer Backs Plan for Indian Casino in Catskills

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has approved plans for a $600 million Las Vegas-style casino in the Catskill Mountains for the St. Regis Mohawk tribe and agreed to lead the effort to gain federal approval. His decision is the biggest leap yet in a 30-year struggle to bring gambling to the faded resort area.

The governor signed a letter on Sunday concurring with an initial federal determination made in 2000 that the proposed casino at the Monticello Raceway would benefit the Mohawks and the residents of Sullivan County. He and the three governing chiefs of the Mohawks also signed a gambling compact that would provide the New York State government with up to 25 percent of the annual revenues from 3,500 slot machines at the casino, an amount estimated at more than $100 million a year.

Proponents contend that the casino would revive the economy of the old borscht belt, attracting six million visitors a year and generating 3,000 jobs and tens of millions of dollars in revenue. In a series of concessions by the tribe, the Mohawks have agreed to provide $20 million a year to the county and to Monticello to offset the impact of the casino and to collect and remit taxes from sales of liquor, cigarettes and other retail items at the casino.

But the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sullivan County Farm Bureau and several other groups filed a suit in federal court in Manhattan last week challenging the casino on environmental grounds. And the project still needs final approval by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the former governor of Idaho, who opposes Indian casinos on nonreservation land. The Mohawk casino would be built more than 400 miles from the tribe’s Akwesasne reservation, which straddles the Canadian border near Messena, N.Y.

Still, the Mohawks were optimistic about the project yesterday, and Governor Spitzer said he would lobby Mr. Kempthorne in person when he is in Washington next week for the national governors meeting.

Mr. Spitzer said he would urge the Interior Department to move quickly to take the land into trust on behalf of the Mohawks under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, as it has for three other tribes since then.

“I will do everything I can to encourage expeditious review and approval,” Mr. Spitzer said yesterday. “The objective here is economic development. One casino, at a minimum, is good for the economy, good for the region.”

The casino, first proposed in 1994, would be built on a 29-acre parcel next to the harness racing track, which already has 1,500 electronic gambling machines, including video poker. Governor Spitzer’s predecessor, George E. Pataki, long supported Indian casinos for the Catskills, but had not completed negotiations for the gambling compact when he left office.

Chief Lorraine M. White, one of three governing chiefs for the Mohawks, said she was elated by Mr. Spitzer’s decision. “It’s a strong indication of the governor’s commitment toward not only developing a relationship with the tribe, but in terms of rebuilding the upstate economy,” she said.

Anthony P. Cellini, supervisor of the Town of Thompson, which includes Monticello, was in New York City yesterday for the State Association of Towns annual meeting when he heard the news. “That’s great,” Mr. Cellini said. “This is the furthest anyone’s ever gotten. I think we’ll see an explosion of growth.”

The owners of the longtime harness track, Empire Resorts, plan to put the land into federal trust for the tribe. Empire Resorts, in turn, would build and manage the casino for the Mohawks for up to seven years, with 70 percent of the net revenues going to the tribe. “While casino gaming and entertainment has expanded and prospered in Atlantic City, Connecticut and now Pennsylvania, the Catskills was left behind,” said Charles Degliomini, a spokesman for Empire Resorts. “Now, thanks to Governor Spitzer, New York State finally gets a chance to put a shovel into the ground.”

Hotel owners and state officials have looked to gambling as the salvation of the Catskills, ever since the area’s tourist economy and 500 hotels and bungalow colonies began a slow, inexorable decline in the late 1960s. Governor Pataki touched off a land rush in and around Monticello in 1999 when he said he favored Indian casinos in former resort areas. Suddenly, well-connected developers sought out tribal partners and bought large swaths of land and shuttered hotels like the Concord. But little headway was made.

Progress at the track is a personal triumph for Robert Berman, a Sullivan County resident who first conceived of building an Indian casino at the raceway in 1994. He lost his partners, the Mohawks, in 2000 after they were lured away by a major gambling company. Six years later, Mr. Berman, who is a shareholder in Empire Resorts but no longer a company executive, lured the tribal leaders back to the raceway for what may be the last off-reservation casino.

“After 12 long years, the project conceived to revitalize a dying community will finally move forward at its rightful home, Monticello Raceway,” Mr. Berman said.

It remains to be seen whether other casinos would be built in the Catskills. The State Legislature authorized three Indian casinos there after the attack on the World Trade Center damaged the state’s and New York City’s economy. At one point, the Pataki administration supported five. But only the Mohawks had obtained preliminary federal approval.

There are now four Indian casinos in New York State, including the Oneida tribe’s Turning Stone casino in Verona and the Mohawks’ casino on the Akwesasne reservation. In the first 10 months of last year, the Seneca tribe’s two upstate casinos generated about $75 million in revenues for the state, according to the Racing and Wagering Board.

But the Catskills was always seen as the gambling prize, because it is closer to New York City than either Atlantic City or the two Connecticut casinos. Analysts have said that a major Catskill casino could generate $1 billion a year and put a significant dent in Atlantic City revenues.

Rosa Lee, a leader of Casino-Free Sullivan County, said yesterday that she remained unimpressed by Governor Spitzer’s actions. She said she was more concerned about traffic congestion, increased crime and the pressure of development.

“We don’t think casinos are the answer to our economic and development problems up here,” she said.

Richard Schrader, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has filed a suit against the project, also expressed disappointment with the governor’s decision and the federal government’s environmental review, which he said was insufficient.

“We simply don’t know the likely impacts in increased traffic congestion, air quality deterioration and dangerous sprawl that a major development like this would have on the Catskills,” he said.

The Interior Department sent a letter to the Mohawks in December saying that it had approved the existing environmental review of the project. But the letter spent more time highlighting Mr. Kempthorne’s negative views of off-reservation casinos. Though they are permitted under the 1988 law, he contends that it was never meant to allow casinos so far from reservations.

It is not clear whether the secretary would have a legal justification for blocking the project, but he could at least delay a final decision.

The agreements reached over the weekend were delayed for weeks when state officials insisted on discussing the collection of cigarette taxes on the Mohawk reservation, a prickly issue for the tribe, which is regarded as a sovereign nation. The tribe has agreed to collect and remit taxes in Monticello. But on the reservation, it says the state should collect taxes from wholesalers who sell tobacco products to distributors there.

The two sides agreed to try to work out the issue.

“We are committed to entering good-faith negotiations toward a formal cigarette trade agreement,” Chief White said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/nyregion/20casino.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

N.Y. governor likely to approve $600M casino

VICTOR WHITMAN

Times Herald-Record

February 06, 2007

MONTICELLO, N.Y. — New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is close to approving a $600-million Monticello casino, his spokeswoman said.

"We are optimistic that there will be something in a number of days," she said of the governor taking a historic step of approving the St. Regis Mohawk casino at Monticello Gaming and Raceway.

In December, authorities gave environmental approval. Spitzer must concur by letter with those findings for the Mohawks and their partner, Empire Resorts, to go forward.

If Spitzer signs, it would be a hurdle that no other Catskill casino has cleared, paving the way for final approval by the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne.

Only three times before have governors allowed state land to be taken into trust for an off-reservation casino — none of them were in New York."

There are negotiations going on and, if I were to characterize them, I would say we are optimistic," the governor's spokeswoman said."

I can tell you that the governor believes that casinos can play a role in economic development. I wouldn't say it is months out. I would say less than weeks."

The governor and the Mohawks still have to work out a compact that specifies, among other things, a revenue sharing deal.A spokeswoman for the Mohawks said yesterday the compact will be negotiated later."

They are embracing this," State Sen. John Bonacic, R-C-Mount Hope, said yesterday of Spitzer."

So, I think, from what they have told me, they are going to move quickly on this, and I am glad."

Other significant hurdles would remain. The Department of Interior must take just less than 30 acres into trust.

The authorities notified the Mohawks that final approval is not guaranteed.

The casino will also likely face a number of court challenges.But casino supporters say the governor's approval would be one of the last big hurdles in the way of a decades-long dream."

It is another step for jobs and economic development in the town and county," Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini said. "I have been waiting 30 years."