Mohawks Revive
Catskills Casino Proposal
As reported by the New York
Times: "In what supporters see as a last-ditch
attempt to bring an Indian casino to the Catskills,
the St. Regis Mohawks and a gambling company are
reviving plans to build a $500 million Las Vegas-style
gambling operation at the Monticello racetrack.
"…But while this casino project still
faces a political gantlet, the Mohawks and the gambling
company, Empire Resorts, say that they may have
found a way around all the obstacles that have doomed
the hopes of half a dozen tribes seeking to build
casinos 90 miles northwest of New York City.
"Because it won initial federal approval in
2000, they said, this casino plan does not require
approval by the State Legislature or Congress, and
is not tied to complex tribal land settlement. All
it needs, they say, is the backing of Gov. George
E. Pataki, who has long said that he favors gambling
in former resort areas like the Catskills.
"Two Mohawk chiefs, whose reservation straddles
the Canadian border, notified the state in an Aug.
2 letter that the tribe wanted to move forward with
the proposed casino at Monticello Raceway.
"…George T. Skibine, an assistant secretary
of economic development for Indian affairs at the
Department of the Interior, said that the dormant
proposal for a Mohawk casino at the racetrack could
be revived if the governor sent a letter concurring
with his agency's findings in 2000 that the casino
would be good for both the tribe and Sullivan County…"
|
