Buffalo Report articles on casino gambling in Buffalo, and useful links about the same...
Citizens against casino gambling in Erie County
• Peyton Randolph: Vegas on the Niagara. Seneca Niagara Casino is open and the agents of avarice and civic stupidity are working hard to make sure Casino Masiello isn't far behind. Will the loot be so enticing that the rich-white-guys-only power club that calls itself the Group of 18 add a chair for an Indian or an Asian? Will ordinary Senecas get rich, as promised, or screwed, as usual? (1 January 2003)
• ...in Buffalo, proactive private industry is truly an oxymoron. Our man Peyton, responds William von Waldheim, overestimates the health, power and coherence of the Good Old Boys. (2 January 2003)
Rev. G. Stanford Bratton. The State should be a protector of its citizens, not a predator joining others in feeding on them. Bratton is one of the group suing New York State for violating its own constitution with the current Niagara Falls and Buffalo casino end-run plan. Here's how Rev. Bratton explained his position and the reason for the lawsuit to the Common Council's Community Development Committee on December 18.(22 December 2002)
New Millennium Group opposes casino compact. A press release from the organization of Buffalo's engaged young professionals saying why they think a casino can only be a bad deal for Buffalo. (22 October 2002)
John Abeel: Casinos' fate is in the hands of the Seneca. Buffalonians' vote on Proposition One on November 5 may have a great effect on Buffalo's future, but the Seneca Nation vote the same day will affect life in the city even more. Buffalonians had no voice at all in the casino deal cut by Governor Pataki and Mayor Masiello, but the Seneca Nation has a voice and when it speaks next week the whole sorry deal may very well implode. (1 November 2002).
J.R. Brantwood: Encountering Paladino. How do you spell public relations for gambling casino development? C-O-N-T-E-M-P-T. (30 October 2002)
Dirty casino politics at Interior, LaFalce tells Inspector General. In this November 6 letter, U.S. Rep. John LaFalce asks the Department of Interior's I.G. to see if Interior Secretary Gale Norton's non-action action on the Pataki-Seneca gambling joint deal was serving George Pataki's reelection team rather than the public.
Cornelius Murray, Indian casino gaming: is it a solution to Western New York's economic stagnation or just a bad bet? In order for Buffalo and Niagara Falls to get $10 million each from their proposed casinos, each casino will have to take in well over $11 billion, according to this briefing document by an Albany attorney. But $10 million won't come close to covering each city's expenses and tax losses. And, worse yet, there's a possibility the Senecas won't have to pay the State anything at all once they're up and running. Is anyone in the Buffalo and Niagara Falls mayors' offices reality-testing? (12 October 2002)
Buffalo Report Interview: Joel Rose: "You can fight city hall." The chairman of Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County says the downtown Buffalo casino plan pushed by Governor George Pataki, Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, Seneca Nation gambling proponents and some local developers is a lousy idea and not a done deal at all. (30 September 2002)
G. Stanford Bratton. State halts transfer of Niagara Falls convention center pending Federal approval of gambling deal. The hoopla about Seneca gambling interests taking over the Niagara Falls convention center last week was a bit premature. They're carrying on as if it's all a done deal, but it's not. (26 September 2002).
Sam Hoyt to Interior Secretary Gale Norton: Pataki's casino compact is illegal. Assemblyman Sam Hoyt has written a tough and technically detailed letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton opposing George Pataki's Seneca Nation gambling compact. Norton has the authority to permit or deny Pataki's attempt to fast-track Department of the Interior approval of the deal, thereby avoiding any public hearings on its merits, effects and legality. Click here for the full text of Hoyt's letter in MS Word format. (20 September 2002)
John Lafalce: September 3 Letter to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton on Seneca aquisition of off-reservation land for gambling casinos. Governor George Pataki, Mayor Anthony Masiello, Seneca gambling advocates, and the various developers hoping to get rich out of casinos in downtown Buffalo and Niagara Falls have fought to avoid public input. Pataki is trying to get the casino land annexed to the Seneca reservation by a fast-track no-hearings process that U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara, ruling in a totally separate case, says may be inappropriate and improper. That is, the law seems to say that they can't totally change the character of downtown Buffalo without at least the same kind of public hearing the law requires when they want to expand a Rite-Aid parking lot in a residential neighborhood.The key person right now is Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who can greenlight Pataki's plan or force Pataki and the developers to hold hearings. In this detailed and cogent letter, U.S. Rep. John Lafalce tells Norton why the course that Judge Arcara suggests is the only legal one is also the only right one. (4 September 2002)
Why Paladino pushes. Developer Carl Paladino has been relentless in his pursuit of a gambling joint on Niagara Square, even though as owner a lot of downtown real estate he should know that taking land for the casino, parking lots, living quarters and who knows what else off the tax rolls will give Buffalo's weakened budget another staggering hit. Why would he do that? What's in it for him? A single sentence in the deal Pataki inked with the Senecas may provide the explanation. (15 June 2002).
The first heart-of-Buffalo gambling-joint Q&A. Many questions remain unanswered about the plot to plop a tax-exempt casino on the city's prime downtown real estate. Mayor Masiello and the developers would prefer those questions weren't asked, and they've done what they could to keep them from being answered. They weren't, we're happy to report, completely successful. (22 May 2002)
What's in George Pataki's compact? On May 14 a few thousand members of the Seneca Nation will vote on a gambling casino compact its agents and attorneys worked out with George Pataki and his agents and attorneys. Pataki hasn't let anyone outside his office and the Seneca Nation see that compact, and with good reason: except for a few rich developers who hope to get richer, it screws the rest of us big time. Here what's in the gambling compact George Pataki doesn't want you to see.(1 May 2002)
Casino Follies (Blue Dog 23 August 2001)
Buffalo's Casino: Sure thing or sucker bet? (Artvoice 19 July 2001)
Pataki's Running Game (Artvoice 28 June 2001)
