Cayuga tribe enters casino sweepstakes

Sunday, June 25, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

The Cayugas are the latest tribe in the state to be approached by Catskill Development LLC about operating a casino and the harness-race track at the Monticello Raceway in Sullivan County.

Clint Halftown of Erie County, spokesman for the Cayuga Nation, said the tribe is reviewing a proposal for it to operate a casino, the Syracuse Newspapers reported in Saturday's edition.

Lloyd A. Kaplan, a spokesman for Catskill Development LLC, declined comment Friday.

Halftown said the Cayugas' governing body has not seen details of the proposal or made a decision on whether to consider the casino idea.

The Sullivan County casino would be about 90 miles northwest of New York City on Route 17, closer to the city than casinos in Atlantic City, N.J. and Connecticut.

"It almost looks like the developers down there are going down the list of the Six Nations tribes. We must be next in line after the Oneidas and Mohawks," Halftown told the newspaper.

Rex Hackler, spokesman for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, said his office has not seen anything on a Cayuga-Catskill Development partnership.

Meanwhile, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, said it was interested in a Catskill casino, chief Jerry Dilliner said.

The Oneida Nation was the first tribe approached in 1995 but a disagreement over profit sharing led that tribe to strike out on its own and open Turning Stone Casino Resort on reservation land in Verona, Oneida County.

Around September 1995, the developers turned to the St. Regis Mohawks of Northern New York. But the Mohawks, who opened a casino of their own on their St. Regis reservation on the U.S.-Canadian border in March 1999, hooked up with Park Place Entertainment, one of the world's largest gambling companies.

The state Assembly Friday delayed action on a measure requiring legislative and local authorization before Indian tribes can open gambling casinos on non-tribal lands. Currently, only the governor's approval is required. The state Senate passed the bill last week.