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So far as I can tell, Carl Paladino has pushed for a Niagara Square gambling casino more aggressively, more creatively, and in more places than any other businessman in town.

Last week he fired off a long letter to the Buffalo News saying the paper should do a better job of getting behind the casino development program. He was on Mayor Masiello's gambling task force, the one that was told to consider how a casino would best fit in downtown Buffalo and not to consider whether a casino belonged in downtown Buffalo in the first place. He was the only businessman who got to speak at Masiello's May 18 kiss-kiss with the Senecas atoning for the Common Council's suggestion the previous week that if the city is going to have gambling it should do it constitutionally. (Mark Hamister was there, but in his capacity of chairman of the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership.) It was Paladino and Masiello who pushed the Buffalo Place board to endorse the gambling compact in a rare telephone vote, even though no one on that board had, at that point, any idea what the consequences of the compact would be for the city. And Paladino was instrumental in getting Cannon Design to come up with a city plan that would restore access to the waterfront – but which had a gambling casino in the heart of town as its anchor.

According to Buffalo News reporter Patrick Lakamp, Paladino threatened any politician who opposed the gambling juggernaut:

"God forbid someone tries to stand in the way of this thing," Paladino said. "They are going to see themselves out of office after the next election. The people of this city will not tolerate another disappointment. There's a line being drawn in the sand, and we're not going to take any more political rhetoric." ("Masiello adds heft to his casino task force," Buffalo News 15 July 2001).

Neither Lakamp nor Paladino clarified who the "we" was. Presumably it's people with enough money to buy and sell, or at least crush at the polls, any disobedient politician."I don't buy phony people," he told an unnamed Buffalo News interviewer ("People Talk," First Sunday, 2 June 2002), which I take to mean that he only buys authentic people, people who can deliver the goods.

He has a reputation for being aggressive and bullyish when something he wants is at stake, but a lot of businessmen are like that. "I go forward. I have a goal line in mind," he told that same unnamed interviewer, "and I keep my eye on it. It's probably the result of some guidance a lawyer from Rite Aid gave me when I was negotiating leases for them. …In the end, he said, we have one objective and that is to sign the lease. Don't lose the deal over nonsense. Keep your eye on the goal and go for it."

Buffalo's problem, he told the reporter, is "We talk too much. We give very vocal and minor groups a voice, and that's so unfair. What keeps me going is the ability to go out and create, and I live for that. I like to make things happen. Good, bad or indifferent, make a decision and get something done."

So Paladino's a guy who makes decisions and pushes ahead, "good, bad or indifferent." He thinks it is unfair for minor groups to have a voice in public policy. He likes to make things happen.

According to Gambling News, Paladino is one of the owners of six parcels of land between Delaware and Franklin that are set to become a parking ramp (off the tax rolls) for the casino, but there's not enough money in that deal to explain all this affect, bullying, and continuing involvement. He owns a lot of property in downtown Buffalo; he's always buying and selling, tearing things down and putting things up.

Masiello said he named Paladino to the task force because he is "a building owner downtown; he's a stakeholder in our community and pays significant taxes." If the Senecas annex the land occupied by the Statler, the convention center, and whatever they need for housing and parking, a huge block of downtown property will be peeled off the tax rolls, which will mean all other taxpayers in the city will have to bear a larger burden of the city's operating costs than they do now. Why would a "stakeholder in our community [who] pays significant taxes" want to see a huge block of downtown property taken off the tax rolls?

This morning I read the "Memorandum of Understanding Between the State of New York and the Seneca Nation of Indians," which was signed on June 20, 2001, by Governor George Pataki and Seneca Nation President Cyrus M. Schindler. That document is a year old, but I think the full text only recently became available. It contains one sentence that may very well explain Paladino's casino passion:

The Nation agrees that it will use all but $5 million of the funds remaining from that appropriated by the Seneca Settlement to acquire the parcels in the City of Niagara Falls and the City of Buffalo. (p.3)

That settlement was $30 million, which means, if all this goes through, there will be $25 million of Seneca money that must be spent for real estate in Niagara Falls and Buffalo.

Most of that real estate money will be spent in Buffalo, not Niagara Falls. Half of $25 million in Niagara Falls would buy half of Niagara Falls and the Senecas don't want or need half of Niagara Falls. Delaware Avenue property is much more expensive than anything near where the Niagara Falls casino is going.

So say just $15 million of that Seneca real estate money will be spent in a very short period of time acquiring property in downtown Buffalo. People who control a lot of real estate in downtown Buffalo stand to make a huge amount of money on this casino deal – even though the city itself won't, under the Governor's present plan, make enough to cover what it spends providing for that casino operation.

The real estate sellers and developers will make their money even if the casino goes bust. They'll get their money before the first customer bellies up to the first slot machine. No wonder they're fired up, no wonder they're threatening anybody who gets in their way.

For them, the casino and all its attendant off-the-tax rolls property in the heart of Buffalo really is the chance of a lifetime. For the rest of us, it's snake-eyes and boxcars.