Senecas’ casino plan draws ill will in Catskills
Supervisor of town caught by surprise
The Seneca Nation of Indians’ surprise announcement Saturday that it plans to open a casino in the Catskills caught a lot of people off guard, including the supervisor of the town where the casino is supposed to be located.
Anthony P. Cellini, whose Town of Thompson in Sullivan County once housed the Concord, one of the leading hotels in the Catskills’ boom years, learned of the Senecas’ plan through the press.
Cellini, who had negotiated agreements with two other tribes that were put off by the federal government’s ban on off-reservation casinos a year ago, is not pleased with the Senecas.
“They aren’t just going to come to the Town of Thompson, plop down a casino and leave without talking to anyone,” Cellini told The Buffalo News on Monday. “We’re just not going to allow it to happen.”
Also caught by surprise was the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, which was the front-runner for a Catskills casino until Interior Secretary Dirk A. Kempthorne rejected its application last January.
Barbara Lazore, a Mohawk tribal chief, issued a statement Monday wishing the Senecas good luck and pointed out the various steps the Mohawks had taken in their unsuccessful seven-year attempt to get approval for a Sullivan County casino.
The Senecas’ joint venture with Rotate Black Gaming, a Michigan start-up company, never had been discussed on the Seneca territories or at Seneca Gaming Corp., the tribe’s gambling arm, according to several Senecas.
Cellini said the Senecas had earlier expressed interest in the Catskills and had talked with him and other officials there, but had never followed through with their plans.
“I’m surprised they’re investing this kind of money when they’re having problems in Buffalo and Niagara right now,” Cellini said of the Senecas’ gambling operations.
Seneca Gaming Corp. announced a 13.9 percent drop in its revenues in its year-end financial statements and laid off 5 percent off its work force just before Christmas. Last August, it stopped construction on its Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino and further improvements on the Seneca Allegany hotel in Salamanca until financial conditions improve.
Erie County Executive Chris Collins and Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown said they did not believe that the Catskills project would affect completion of the Buffalo casino.
The Senecas’ construction halt in Buffalo came after the tribe poured $47 million into the planned $333 million casino-hotel. A rusting superstructure looms over the temporary casino at the Buffalo site.
Ruling in a lawsuit that is still active, a federal judge has said gambling cannot legally occur at the Buffalo site.
Collins said he believes the Senecas should have a final court ruling before they resume work on the Buffalo casino.
Cellini said he received calls Monday from Michael Militello, the Buffalo restaurateur who handles food and beverages for the Seneca casinos, and officials from Rotate Black Gaming trying to patch rough feelings from the rushed announcement.
“They apologized for the way the announcement was handled,” said Cellini, who was told to also expect a call from Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr.
The Senecas’ news release came at 6:52 a. m. Saturday, that early because two newspapers carried stories Saturday about Rotate Black Gaming’s Catskills project with the Senecas.
Rotate Black Gaming, in a Dec. 29 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said that it was transferring 63 acres in Sullivan County for a proposed casino resort.
Although the Senecas were not named in that filing, Snyder acknowledged the tribe’s involvement to the Albany Times Union. Both the Albany and the Middletown Times Herald Record carried stories Saturday, causing the Senecas to react.
Not only did the Senecas fail to touch base with the town, but they have not yet talked with Gov. David A. Paterson, who would have to enter into a compact with the tribe before a casino would be allowed.
The Senecas acknowledged that unless the Obama administration reverses the Department of Interior’s ruling against off-reservation casinos — denying the Mohawks and 22 other tribes — the Catskills location could not be approved.
The Senecas, in making the announcement, said no Seneca official would be available to comment. The tribe said the Tribal Council had established Seneca Catskills Gaming Corp., whose chairman is Kevin Seneca, to handle the venture.
Snyder, the Seneca president who is also Seneca Gaming’s chairman, said the tribe would not use the Salamanca Settlement Act to obtain the Catskills property. He said that it would hold the land in “fee status” and pay taxes on it until the United States approved putting it in restricted fee or trust status.
Cellini said the 63 acres in question were recently sold to Rotate Black Gaming for $500,000.
He said he had earlier negotiated agreements with the St. Regis Mohawks and the Stock-bridge-Munsee tribe in Wisconsin for casinos in his town.
Each tribe, he said, agreed to pay $15 million for town improvements that would be needed for a casino.
Cellini said the Senecas’ prospects at this time do not look good. “You know, I’ve been the most staunch supporter in government for a casino in my town,” he said. “And I’m skeptical, especially the way they’ve done it.”
Officials of Rotate Black Gaming, located in Petoskey, Mich., said they would not comment. “Because of certain confidentiality agreements with regards to the Catskills project, I have to direct all inquiries to the Seneca Nation,” said John Paulsen, the company’s chairman.
But a board member of Rotate Black Gaming, William N. Thompson, a University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor who is considered one of the nation’s leading experts on gambling, said he also was surprised his company had not received approval from the Town of Thompson.
“I found that surprising,” Thompson said, “because just from what I gathered, my company’s been going down the line doing everything according to the procedures. And that was one of the procedures, so I found that a little questionable.”
For Thompson, who came to Buffalo in 2001 for a gambling forum and who has been quoted in The News several times about Seneca casinos, joining Rotate Black Gaming’s board was his initial foray into an industry about which he regularly comments.
He said he sees no conflict of interest.
“As a matter of fact, with our company, nothing’s happened,” Thompson said, “and there’s no income, so at the moment, I don’t think I have conflicts.”
Thompson, in his role as a gambling expert, was asked whether this was the time for the Senecas to get involved in a new casino, as they face declining revenues, layoffs and the construction halt.
“Well, is it time to build a house? Is it time for anything in the American economy?” he said. “Whatever is done, as far as business activity, has to be done with a view toward the future, and, golly, we have to think the future will be better than it is today.”
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