WASHINGTON – Federal officials are raising concerns about a proposal to build an Indian-run, $600 million casino in the Catskills.
Gov. Spitzer announced a blockbuster deal Monday for the St. Regis Mohawks to build the gaming palace at the Monticello Raceway, 450 miles from the Mohawk reservation on the New York-Canadian border.
The U.S. Interior Department has to sign off on the application. But in letters written in December and obtained by The Post, a top Interior official expressed his doubts to Chief Lorraine White and then-Gov. George Pataki.
Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior James Cason warned the tribe that the feds are already setting new rules “that may result in fewer off-reservation properties” being added to tribal lands through a trust, as the Mohawks are seeking to do at Monticello.
Cason also noted how far away the proposed casino would be from tribal lands, and wrote that the likelihood of acceptance “decreases with the distance the subject parcel is from the tribe’s established reservation or ancestral lands and the majority of tribal members.”
One letter even advised the tribe of the “risks” of pursuing an off-site gambling application – noting that it is facing a “changing environment.”
Lawmakers have introduced legislation to crack down on the practice, and the feds say they plan to consider the “broad implications” that new gaming operations have on established communities.
A Spitzer aide said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne had a “big role” in the letter.
To overcome objections, the tribe is already lining up political muscle.
Spitzer says he will go to Washington to push the project, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) already back it.
The tribe has hired Jerome Levine, a top litigator with Holland & Knight. Empire Resorts, which plans to build and operate the casino, paid $20,000 to a Washington lobbying firm last year.
Gambling goof / Editorial