After 30 Years, Casino Moves Forward

After thirty years of trying to come to an agreement with the state of New York, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe of the Catskills has finally gotten approval from the state to move forward on a casino that they have been trying to build there. Governor Eliot Spitzer approved the plan on Monday and it is now off to the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs to see if they approve of it as well.

Spitzer does not think that casinos are the best way to bring in finances for the state or for economically depressed areas, but he does think that with a tourist destination like the Catskills that bringing in slot machines and the 3,000 jobs that are coming with them, may be just the thing to help out.

The Department of the Interior has already approved an environmental review of the tribe’s project, and felt that it would not be a problem. However, farm and conservation groups are trying to stop them from getting the slot machine casino as they say the government did not explore the impact of the casino on the environment closely enough.

The Interior Department has to put the land in the Catskills into trust for the Mohawks before they can build on it anyway, but they are not the first ones to try and build a casino on that land. Others have tried and failed over the past three decades. One small setback for the casino plan – in January a judge said that the plan submitted by the Seneca Indian Nation should not have been approved in 2002. This could mean trouble for the tribe, but with the governor behind them, they may be finally able to move forward.

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