Mohawks Revive Catskills Casino Proposal

As reported by the New York Times: "In what supporters see as a last-ditch attempt to bring an Indian casino to the Catskills, the St. Regis Mohawks and a gambling company are reviving plans to build a $500 million Las Vegas-style gambling operation at the Monticello racetrack.

"…But while this casino project still faces a political gantlet, the Mohawks and the gambling company, Empire Resorts, say that they may have found a way around all the obstacles that have doomed the hopes of half a dozen tribes seeking to build casinos 90 miles northwest of New York City.

"Because it won initial federal approval in 2000, they said, this casino plan does not require approval by the State Legislature or Congress, and is not tied to complex tribal land settlement. All it needs, they say, is the backing of Gov. George E. Pataki, who has long said that he favors gambling in former resort areas like the Catskills.

"Two Mohawk chiefs, whose reservation straddles the Canadian border, notified the state in an Aug. 2 letter that the tribe wanted to move forward with the proposed casino at Monticello Raceway.

"…George T. Skibine, an assistant secretary of economic development for Indian affairs at the Department of the Interior, said that the dormant proposal for a Mohawk casino at the racetrack could be revived if the governor sent a letter concurring with his agency's findings in 2000 that the casino would be good for both the tribe and Sullivan County…"