The permanent Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino complex in downtown Buffalo, New York, will have a 22-story all-suites hotel adjoining a 90,000-square-foot gaming floor for 2,000 slot machines and 45 table games, the Seneca Nation announced last month. Adding the hotel, a spa and four restaurants to the original plan brings the project cost to $333 million, up from the initial $125 million projection.
Although lawsuits challenging federal designation of the nine-acre Buffalo Creek site as tribal land are still in court, “This project is the result of vision, dedication and a willingness to invest,” says Barry Snyder Sr., president of Seneca Gaming Corporation. The casino is due to open in early 2010—early estimates said 2009—with the 206 hotel suites ready by midyear.
The expanded final design by Sosh Architects of New York City was motivated by Seneca’s success with its casino-hotels in Salamanca and Niagara Falls and unexpectedly good business at its 124-slot temporary casino in Buffalo. Buffalo Creek is the third and last casino allowed under Seneca’s New York gaming compact.
The hotel, clad in metallic material, will be capped with a huge video screen displaying interior images and marketing messages. Three acres of the site will be devoted to a park and an artificial “Buffalo Creek.”
National Indian Gaming Commission Vice Chairman Chuck Choney will step down at the end of the year, ending more than 35 years of public service—five as part of the NIGC, six in the U.S. Army and 26 years as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Chuck Choney brought maturity, leadership and a keen understanding of Indian and tribal traditions and values, a solid judgment to the commission,” said Chairman Phil Hogen. “His service here raised respect for the commission and for integrity in the Indian gaming industry. His participation on the commission will sorely be missed.”
Choney was instrumental in the formation of the Indian Gaming Working Group, which was formed in 2003 to enhance cooperation with federal agencies and to coordinate their roles and functions with respect to potential crimes throughout the Indian gaming industry. Crime in Indian gaming was Choney’s specialty, and he helped to develop benchmarks for law enforcement involvement over criminal acts taking place at Indian casinos. Prior to the establishment of those benchmarks, some felony acts went unpunished.
“Now when an Indian gaming officials discover criminal activity being committed on their property, they know it will be properly addressed,” said Choney, “
Appeals court chips away at tribal sovereignty
A February decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that tribal casinos are subject to federal labor laws, and some speculate, could begin a general rollback of tribal sovereignty by the courts.
In issuing the decision the court said, “Tribal sovereignty is not absolute autonomy permitting a tribe to operate in a commercial capacity without legal restraint.”
The court ruled that the casino owned by the San Manuel Indians near Palm Springs, California is not part of the government operation of the tribe, is just another business, and therefore not protected by sovereign immunity. That opens up the casinos, and any Indian casinos within the appeals court’s jurisdiction to unionization of the workforce. Coincidentally, that same issue is the main sticking point in several gaming compacts that were signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger but have been mired for more than a year in the legislature.
Some legal experts predict that the decision could eventually end tribal sovereignty, something that many feel the U.S. Supreme Court is hostile to. Courts could find that more federal statutes apply to tribes, and incrementally chip away at the idea that Indian tribes are, as they hold, virtually independent nations.
The lawsuit that sparked the decision was filed by The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, which was denied the right to organize while one of its rivals was not. During the course of the case the court ruled that the tribal casino is subject to national labor laws.
The reason some feel this will begin to chip away at sovereignty is that the has turned over a previously accepted concept that state and federal laws apply to tribes only when Congress specifically states that it does. The court ruled the opposite: that the assumption is that state and federal laws apply unless Congress specifically exempts tribes.
The court noted that most visitors and even employees of casinos are not members of the tribe and concluded that a casino is not an integral part of the tribal government—merely a revenue source.
Florida compact in the cards?
Prospects of some Class III card games being allowed at the Seminole tribe’s seven Florida casinos are among the latest sticking points in prolonged gaming-compact negotiations between the tribe and Governor Charlie Crist. The final compact may appear by October 15, the new deadline the U.S. Interior Department set last month before it might step in to allow slot machines and other casino games without a state agreement.
Dan Adkins, chief gaming executive of Mardi Gras Gaming in Hallandale Beach, says he will “be at the courthouse in a heartbeat” to challenge the governor over any compact that allows the tribe blackjack, baccarat or other games parimutuels like his are not allowed under state law.
Slot machines, however, are the prime element in compact negotiation. Seminole wants them to replace the bingo machines it has run for years. Racetracks and jai alai frontons are allowed slot machines under a 2004 state law if local voters approve them, but not the electronic roulette and craps games a recent draft of the compact allows Seminole.
That’s another reason Adkins wants “a level playing field. Let’s do it right the first time and include everyone in this pact,” he says. He may find support from other operators, citizens groups and the state legislature if a final compact appears this month. All are expected to tie up the compact for years with suits or other action.
