September 30, 2002
Buffalo Report articles on casino gambling in Buffalo, and useful links about the same...
Citizens against casino gambling in Erie County
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 a Buffalo 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)
(So Detroit's the casino model for Buffalo, huh? Take a look at "Detroit's Casinos Leave Some Locals Feeling Spent" in the June 1 L.A. Times. Most of the money being lost in Detroit's casinos is being lost by local folks, and as soon as they lose it, it leaves town. Doesn't portend well for Buffalo.)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)
The Pataki-Seneca Compact online. If you call Buffalo Mayor Masiello's office, they'll tell you they haven't seen the 700-page gambling casino deal worked out between Governor Pataki and the Senecas, the one the Senecas voted to approve on Tuesday May 14. If you call Governor Pataki's office, they'll say, "Compact? What compact?" If this goes through, it will turn downtown Buffalo into an adjunct to a gambling joint all profits from which will go elsewhere—and the mayor and his staff claim total ignorance of it and the governor and his staff play hide-and-go-seek when you try to make them get specific about it. Hooray for Tom Christy and his P.U.L.S.E. website for making this document available to all of us. (16 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)