NY Governor Cuomo Has Casino Vision for Niagara Falls
When you think about Niagara Falls, chances are your mind wanders to the awesomeness of the falls, or perhaps to the crazy stunts that have been attempted there over the past few centuries, like the tight-rope walk performed over the falls last summer by daredevil Nik Wallenda, who traversed the misty gap between New York and the Canadian side of the falls in about twenty-five minutes before a huge crowd of captivated onlookers.
If New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has his way, soon enough Niagara Falls might also become synonymous with the type of high-style casino gambling more commonly found in Las Vegas or Atlantic City than sleepy upstate New York, as the governor has set his sights upon building a casino near the popular tourist destination. According to The Buffalo News, Cuomo will soon propose a casino property to be sited near the Niagara Falls area.
New York, like a growing number of states in the US, is looking into allowing the construction of Nevada-style, non-tribal casinos. Joining a list of states like Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Maryland, New York has an eye on the revenue that comes along with casino expansion.
The state’s coastline suffered immense damage wrought by last year’s massive Superstorm Sandy, and like the rest of the country, has seen its coffers depleted due to a tax base diminished by the housing bust and years of weak economic activity.
The paper reported that Cuomo, frustrated by tribal gaming interests in New York, had earlier proposed the construction of three Las Vegas-type casino resorts in upstate New York. In Governor Cuomo’s view, “ending the Indian monopoly would be an economic benefit” to New York state as a whole.
He is expected to put forward the idea of the Niagara Falls casino, which would be the fourth, in part due to his irritation with the Seneca Indian tribe over what he views as a breach in a 2002 contract between the Seneca nation and New York state, which has resulted in the Senecas refusing to pay revenue from slot machines in recent years.
The mayor of Niagara Falls, Paul A. Dyster, has said that he believes that the Governor has a potentially very effective bargaining chip with the Niagara Falls casino proposal, saying, “The discussion of the possibility of a non-Seneca casino in Niagara Falls serves two objectives. It creates additional leverage to resolve the dispute with the Senecas, and at the same time, it provides an option if the dispute isn’t resolved.”
As yet, the location of the Niagara Falls casino property has not been determined, as the idea is in its earliest planning phases and has yet to be officially introduced to the public.
Meanwhile, in neighboring New Jersey, it remains to be seen what the fate of an Internet gambling bill passed by the state’s legislature late last year will be. That bill is sitting on the desk of Governor Chris Christie, with a great deal of speculation surrounding two potential outcomes. Sources close to the governor have reportedly said that the governor will allow the bill to passively take effect, while others have raised the possibility of the governor handing down a conditional veto.
With only three days left before the law would automatically take effect, the outcome, whichever way it shakes out, should make for an interesting week of gambling news.
Be sure to check back for continued updates on these stories and many others relating to land-based casino development as well as online poker and Internet gambling news in the United States.
