CR
New member
Casino Plan for Catskills Moves Closer to Reality With Interior Department’s Approval
Phil Mansfield for The New York Times
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: December 15, 2006
After more than 10 years of delays, tribal recriminations and opposition from Atlantic City gambling interests, the effort to build a Las Vegas-style casino in the Catskills took a major step forward yesterday.
The Interior Department approved an environmental review of the St. Regis Mohawk Indian tribe’s $600 million project. Proponents say the casino will bring thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in revenue to a once thriving resort area known as the Borscht Belt.
James E. Cason, the associate deputy secretary for Indian affairs at the Interior Department, said yesterday that he was notifying the Mohawks, whose reservation straddles the Canadian border, that the agency determined that the proposed casino on 30 acres next to the racetrack outside Monticello in Sullivan County would not have a significant environmental impact.
The longtime harness racing track, owned by Empire Resorts, which would build the new casino, is currently the site of Monticello Gaming and Raceway. It now features more than 1,500 electronic gambling machines, including video poker, where patrons can wager from pennies to $10. A similar setup with the electronic machines is in place just north of New York City at Yonkers Raceway, which is about 85 miles southeast of Monticello.
“It’s a step in what’s been a long process for Monticello,” Mr. Cason said of the casino, which would include table games like blackjack, roulette, craps and the more traditional slot machines as well as the current electronic ones.
Mr. Cason, who said “there is not an environmental impediment” to the new casino in Monticello, added that he was sending a notice to Gov. George E. Pataki, who has long supported Indian casinos in the Catskills, asking him to concur.
As recently as May 25, Mr. Pataki urged the Interior Department to expedite its review of the Mohawk casino, which he “strongly supports.” A spokesman for the governor said yesterday that Mr. Pataki, who leaves office in two weeks, had not yet received the notification.
The federal determination formally revives a project that first received approval in April 2000, when the Interior Department ruled that a casino at the racetrack would be a boon to both the tribe and the surrounding communities.
“This is great news for the Mohawk people, as well as the people of Sullivan County who have been waiting for this project to become a reality for well over 10 years now,” Chief Lorraine M. White of the Mohawks said yesterday.
The next step in that reality is for the Mohawks and New York State to amend a gambling compact and revenue-sharing agreement before construction can begin. The tribe may also have to fend off a lawsuit by environmentalists.
While Mr. Pataki, a Republican, is expected to send a concurrence letter before he leaves office, the compact negotiations would presumably fall to the incoming governor, Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, who has generally said he supports tribal casinos in the Catskills.
Chief White said the tribe had already agreed to provide the state with up to 25 percent of the slot machine revenues and to collect sales taxes for the state. The Mohawks also agreed to provide Sullivan County and Monticello with $20 million a year.
The political climate nationally has turned against what are known as off-reservation casinos, with Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, leading an effort to curtail or even eliminate them. If the Monticello casino is built, it will be the fourth such casino established since the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed in 1988.
The Mohawk casino “may actually be the last off-reservation casino,” said Prof. I. Nelson Rose of Whittier Law School in California, an expert on Indian gambling.
There are currently four tribal casinos on reservations in New York. But for casino operators and the tribes, the prize has always been the Catskills, which is closer to New York City than either Atlantic City gambling or the two Indian casinos in Connecticut.
Empire Resorts says the casino in Monticello would attract 6.1 million visitors annually. Analysts estimate that it could take a 15 percent bite out of Atlantic City gambling revenues. “It’s exciting to get going,” said David P. Hanlon, the chairman of Empire.
Under federal law, Empire can transfer 30 acres to the tribe for a casino project. Empire would build and operate the casino under a contract with the Mohawks.
News of the latest move by the Interior Department was greeted with delight and relief by tribal chiefs on the Akwesasne Reservation and, 400 miles south, by officials in Sullivan County.
“This is great news,” said Anthony P. Cellini, supervisor of the Town of Thompson, which includes the village of Monticello. “It’s about time. This will have a major economic impact on the county. I think you’ll see an economic development explosion.”
There has been a burst of second-home construction in Sullivan County. But many of the hotels and bungalow colonies that were in the county in the 1940s and ’50s are gone. And along Broadway, the once bustling main road in Monticello, there are mostly vacant parking spaces and empty storefronts.
Not everyone is thrilled. The Natural Resources Defense Council has said that the federal government failed to adequately assess the casino’s environmental impacts. Rosa Lee, treasurer of Casino-Free Sullivan County, said that a casino would generate road-clogging traffic, pollution and crime, ruining the bucolic environment that now exists.
“The paybacks the casinos are offering don’t begin to touch the impacts from the casino,” she said.
But elected officials like Senator Charles E. Schumer, Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, State Senator John J. Bonacic and Sullivan County legislators support the Mohawk plan.
If the project goes forward, it will be a victory for Empire Resorts and Robert Berman, a local resident who in 1994 conceived the idea. Mr. Berman suffered innumerable setbacks over the years, including a falling-out with the Mohawks in 2000, but always kept at it.
“After 12 long years, the federal approvals have been secured by Governor Pataki,” Mr. Berman said. “Now it’s at the state’s sole discretion whether thousands of jobs can be created and the Catskills can be revitalized.”
Phil Mansfield for The New York Times
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: December 15, 2006
After more than 10 years of delays, tribal recriminations and opposition from Atlantic City gambling interests, the effort to build a Las Vegas-style casino in the Catskills took a major step forward yesterday.
The Interior Department approved an environmental review of the St. Regis Mohawk Indian tribe’s $600 million project. Proponents say the casino will bring thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in revenue to a once thriving resort area known as the Borscht Belt.
James E. Cason, the associate deputy secretary for Indian affairs at the Interior Department, said yesterday that he was notifying the Mohawks, whose reservation straddles the Canadian border, that the agency determined that the proposed casino on 30 acres next to the racetrack outside Monticello in Sullivan County would not have a significant environmental impact.
The longtime harness racing track, owned by Empire Resorts, which would build the new casino, is currently the site of Monticello Gaming and Raceway. It now features more than 1,500 electronic gambling machines, including video poker, where patrons can wager from pennies to $10. A similar setup with the electronic machines is in place just north of New York City at Yonkers Raceway, which is about 85 miles southeast of Monticello.
“It’s a step in what’s been a long process for Monticello,” Mr. Cason said of the casino, which would include table games like blackjack, roulette, craps and the more traditional slot machines as well as the current electronic ones.
Mr. Cason, who said “there is not an environmental impediment” to the new casino in Monticello, added that he was sending a notice to Gov. George E. Pataki, who has long supported Indian casinos in the Catskills, asking him to concur.
As recently as May 25, Mr. Pataki urged the Interior Department to expedite its review of the Mohawk casino, which he “strongly supports.” A spokesman for the governor said yesterday that Mr. Pataki, who leaves office in two weeks, had not yet received the notification.
The federal determination formally revives a project that first received approval in April 2000, when the Interior Department ruled that a casino at the racetrack would be a boon to both the tribe and the surrounding communities.
“This is great news for the Mohawk people, as well as the people of Sullivan County who have been waiting for this project to become a reality for well over 10 years now,” Chief Lorraine M. White of the Mohawks said yesterday.
The next step in that reality is for the Mohawks and New York State to amend a gambling compact and revenue-sharing agreement before construction can begin. The tribe may also have to fend off a lawsuit by environmentalists.
While Mr. Pataki, a Republican, is expected to send a concurrence letter before he leaves office, the compact negotiations would presumably fall to the incoming governor, Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, who has generally said he supports tribal casinos in the Catskills.
Chief White said the tribe had already agreed to provide the state with up to 25 percent of the slot machine revenues and to collect sales taxes for the state. The Mohawks also agreed to provide Sullivan County and Monticello with $20 million a year.
The political climate nationally has turned against what are known as off-reservation casinos, with Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, leading an effort to curtail or even eliminate them. If the Monticello casino is built, it will be the fourth such casino established since the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed in 1988.
The Mohawk casino “may actually be the last off-reservation casino,” said Prof. I. Nelson Rose of Whittier Law School in California, an expert on Indian gambling.
There are currently four tribal casinos on reservations in New York. But for casino operators and the tribes, the prize has always been the Catskills, which is closer to New York City than either Atlantic City gambling or the two Indian casinos in Connecticut.
Empire Resorts says the casino in Monticello would attract 6.1 million visitors annually. Analysts estimate that it could take a 15 percent bite out of Atlantic City gambling revenues. “It’s exciting to get going,” said David P. Hanlon, the chairman of Empire.
Under federal law, Empire can transfer 30 acres to the tribe for a casino project. Empire would build and operate the casino under a contract with the Mohawks.
News of the latest move by the Interior Department was greeted with delight and relief by tribal chiefs on the Akwesasne Reservation and, 400 miles south, by officials in Sullivan County.
“This is great news,” said Anthony P. Cellini, supervisor of the Town of Thompson, which includes the village of Monticello. “It’s about time. This will have a major economic impact on the county. I think you’ll see an economic development explosion.”
There has been a burst of second-home construction in Sullivan County. But many of the hotels and bungalow colonies that were in the county in the 1940s and ’50s are gone. And along Broadway, the once bustling main road in Monticello, there are mostly vacant parking spaces and empty storefronts.
Not everyone is thrilled. The Natural Resources Defense Council has said that the federal government failed to adequately assess the casino’s environmental impacts. Rosa Lee, treasurer of Casino-Free Sullivan County, said that a casino would generate road-clogging traffic, pollution and crime, ruining the bucolic environment that now exists.
“The paybacks the casinos are offering don’t begin to touch the impacts from the casino,” she said.
But elected officials like Senator Charles E. Schumer, Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, State Senator John J. Bonacic and Sullivan County legislators support the Mohawk plan.
If the project goes forward, it will be a victory for Empire Resorts and Robert Berman, a local resident who in 1994 conceived the idea. Mr. Berman suffered innumerable setbacks over the years, including a falling-out with the Mohawks in 2000, but always kept at it.
“After 12 long years, the federal approvals have been secured by Governor Pataki,” Mr. Berman said. “Now it’s at the state’s sole discretion whether thousands of jobs can be created and the Catskills can be revitalized.”
