Gary Mayer's Potshots cartoon about casinos in Bridgeville, Sullivan County.
A nit-picky rule for Indian casinos was thrown out the window yesterday, when the federal government announced that it will no longer reject potential Indian casino projects for being too far away from a tribe's reservation lands.
The Times Union explained this morning that this makes building a Catskills casino a whole lot easier:
The move gives the Catskills a chance at long-proposed developments near Monticello after the agency rescinded the 2008 Bush administration requirement that off-reservation casinos be within commuting distance of the tribal operators' reservation.
The decision means that there might be new life for plans by two different Indian tribes to build a resort casino in the town of Thompson in Sullivan county. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Department of the Interior used the long-distance rule to ax two schemes for Catskills casinos in 2008, when the rule was created:
[Then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne]used his new commutability rule in January 2008 when he rejected plans for two Indian casinos in the Catskills, citing the long distances from tribal lands to the proposed gambling sites. In rejecting applications from the St. Regis Mohawks of northern New York and The Stockbridge Munsee of Wisconsin, he said the “remote” locations of the casinos could harm the reservation communities by encouraging residents to leave for jobs elsewhere.
The Times Herald-Record reports that U.S Senator Chuck Schumer is touting yesterday's announcement as a sea change for the Catskills economy:
"Today's announcement cracks open a previously locked door and presents a renewed opportunity to pursue a Catskills casino," Schumer said in a prepared statement. "Though barriers still remain, this groundbreaking action by DOI removes what was an insurmountable hurdle on the path to a Catskills casino."
