When the US controversy ends, as they banned Gambling, because of there controversy.

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In 1842 “did the treaty state “the Seneca Nation could and should open casinos in the middle of Buffalo?”

Article II, section 2, of the Constitution states that the president “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”

Did two-thirds of the Senate concur with the President?
The authority can not be delegated.
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Treaties.htm

What will the ruling be next Tuesday, July 8, 2008?

As far as the Iraq issue goes, there are a few things people cannot do in the new “free” Iraq. Drink, gamble, and have fun. If casinos are your idea of recreation, then I say you should have the opportunitiy to go. If you don’t like casinos, then so be it. Nobody is forcing people to go to the casino.

It is part of living in a free country. Free drinks included.

The “Native” Americans came here from the Northwest (Asia).
How about a Puerto Rican Casino?
So what if they came from the Southeast.
And when do the Afro-Europeans get a Casino?

All Americans are equal; but some Americans are more equal than others?

As for the country going down to tubes due to gambling, what a joke. The country’s economic problems are more the result of the War in Iraq than anything else. We borrow for the war from China, and have racked up a debt so large it will take generations to repay it. Our gas prices have gone up in large part due to the devaluation of our dollar driven by our national debt. China and other financers of the war use the profits from loaning us money to develop and add to the demand for oil. Etc… etc…, no Seneca casinos in that loop. The Seneca didn’t close steel and auto plants either.

Maybe you should focus your energy on the REAL causes of industrial and economic decline and leave the Seneca alone. All they want to do is create jobs and run a business. Remember, the big opposition wasn’t to the casino, but to the hotel development. Why? To protect the monopoly for a few downtown interests.

So focus on China. It seems that they are profiteering from the war in Iraq and running our economy down in the process. Maybe they should forgive our debt (kind of like the world bank did for South American countries 30 years ago).

As for WNYMind’s claim that the city gains $8 million, or that ECC will hire educators for the hotel industry, or that there is spill over business, or that 35 taverns in Niagara Falls closed because of the smoking ban and drug dealing. Let me say this: wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. The supposed $8 million dollar gain to the city (and the figure is far less than that) would come at a cost of more than $200 million in gambling losses from Buffalo citizens. You’re right, universities don’t pay property tax, NEITHER do the Senecas! There is NO spillover business from casinos other than the vendors who supply them with liquor and food and such. Every meal and drink served in a tax free Seneca casino is a meal or drink not served in a local Buffalo restaurant. The 35 small taverns that went out of business 3 months after Seneca Casino opened went out of business directly because of the casino, not the smoking ban. The casino opened in December of 2002, the smoking ban wasn’t in effect until mid-2003. It is very difficult to compete with FREE drinks. As for DWIs, when you drink at the corner bar, you only have to walk, not drive.
You can go on and on as much as you like, and for whatever reason you will continue to convince yourself there is something good about a casino. This country is rotting from within, and these casinos are only adding to the collapse of the country, the state, and now possibly our little city. America was never in so much danger as it is today. And the biggest threat is our willingness to do damage to ourselves.

That said, the TV Cheers was a hangout for alcoholics who neglected their families, careers, and communities. Let’s go through the characters:

Sam the alcoholic bartender who drinks club soda, but can’t get out of his bar. He uses his bar as a hookup zone to sleep around with any drunk woman in the bar.

Carla the baby machine and anti-intellectual

Coach and later Woody, both are borderline imbeciles, but capable of slinging drinks and outsmarting drunks on occasion

Norm the alcoholic slob who neglects his wife and job (when he has one) in order to drink beer he never pays for.

Cliff the mailman and social misfit, also a 50 yr old virgin.

Fraiser the alcoholic psychologist who also allows his drinking to ruin his marraige and career.

Rebecca, the nymphomaniac (alcohol induced usually)

Diane, the unstable psydo-intellectual who is mocked by the drunks for being educated and working to leave the bar life for something else.

Let’s not fantasize about alcoholism and marginal businesses that facilitate these dives.

$8 million guaranteed to the City of Buffalo per year (which is more than many of the other things cited would produce due to nonprofit status or pure public uses. Colleges and universities pay no property taxes, waterfront expansion results in new costs for public infrastructure and parks, and manufacturing and technology parks typically come with tax breaks and infrastructure costs).

The casino involves no public money.

The casino will bring hundreds of temporary construction jobs and over 1000 permanent jobs for people in the city and Native Americans who currently have no income or lower paying jobs without benefits. Some are low skill jobs, but others are skilled jobs.

The casino also has many multipliers (i.e. spillover effects in the economy). Lots of contracts for services and supplies for the hotel and restaurants. Well paid jobs for educators in ECC and Niagara University’s hotel management school, etc….

The casino’s hotel will increase the city’s capacity to host conventions and conferences, as well as bring people traveling for sabres games and other events to the city, as opposed to other destinations.

Even a negative, the small number of people who gamble and have problems with that choice, will have a better chance of getting into gambling adversion programs, since the casino funds them. A byproduct of that will be more jobs for counselors and social workers. Illegal gambling groups don’t promote that kind of activity, and the state’s lotto money for such programs never really reach Buffalo (it gets sucked up by NYC and other municipalities).

Also, losing the taverns is not big loss, and there is no reason to believe that the casino caused them to fail in Niagara Falls. The City of NF changed its zoning in an effort to close a lot of those businesses since they were magnets for drug dealing and illegal activities, as well as being located in buildings with multiple code violations. In addition, some would say the NY state smoking ban had more to do with tavern failures. But any way you look at it, closing the taverns meant that some people cut back on their drinking (i.e. fewer drunks and drunk drivers). This resulted in lower costs for policing and safer streets. The little taverns with all their complications were 100 times more of a puplic problem than a well regulated casino with a real stake in the community due to its visability and investment.

You can also thank Bruce Jackson for trying to throw out another red hearing in the latest attempt to stop a major development and employment project from coming to Buffalo. Yes, Buffalo, the place losing jobs like wildfire.

The former Erie County administration, which I served as deputy county executive, sued the U.S. Department of the Interior and Secretary Gale Norton and her successor for having ignored statutes (the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the LaFalce-Houghton legislation) as well as for having violated the Administrative Procedure Act in failing to follow proper process.

In 2005, when the Department of the Interior asked government officials whether they had any comment on its non-decision decision to allow the Seneca Gaming Corporation to let a casino be built in Buffalo, Erie County Executive Joel Giambra was the only elected official to object. Our grounds: that the proposed casino-retail-entertainment complex would injure the local economy by drawing trade from existing taxpaying businesses; that it would swell the numbers of problem gamblers and of those who engage in the criminal conduct associated with casinos, and that both of these groups would in turn cost taxpayers; that the public health would be injured by unregulated smoking; and that the economic harm could not be mitigated by the proposed distribution of part of the projected revenue-sharing agreement.

In 2008, Erie County Executive Collins withdrew the County as a plaintiff.

We all await Judge Skretny’s decision on the substantive and procedural issues.