WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS

The following is a summary of information from studies, reports and articles on the impact of casino gambling on communities. All the source material is available at our storefront at 91 Partition Street, Saugerties, N.Y. 12477 (845- 246-8996).

Three major conclusions can be drawn from the research:

1. Any economic gains will be outweighed by the costs arising from the crime and social problems that follow the casino and from economic losses to established local businesses.[1]

2. There are risks to communities in which land is owned and developed by American Indian tribes because the tribes are sovereign nations; environmental, land use and tax laws that apply to everyone else do not apply them. It is also legally risky for local entities contracting with American Indian tribes because the law about off-reservation casinos is unsettled. In addition to being sovereign nations, the tribes are also wards of the federal government, and there is no developed federal law about what terms are enforceable in a contract between a local entity like a town or a county and a sovereign Indian nation under the control and protection of the federal government.[2]

3. Saugerties would be overwhelmed by the size of the casino complex and the tens of thousands of employees and customers it would bring. It would overwhelm any Hudson Valley municipality. Further, the millions (if not billions) of dollars which leave the pockets of casino guests will give the developer and the tribe the ability to exert influence amounting to control over both Saugerties and Ulster County.[3] Saugerties will remain a village and town in name only.

DISCUSSION

1. LOW BENEFITS, HIGH COSTS

Independent studies have concluded that the overall economic cost of casinos is greater than the economic benefit derived from them. Likewise, the social cost, which is crime and pathological gambling, is far greater than the entertainment value of casinos, which is their only social benefit.[4]

JOBS:  The casino will produce a small number of managerial level jobs. Some of these may go to residents of Saugerties or neighboring communities. Because they are probably already employed, that will force local employers to find new help.[5]

Most jobs, however, will be low wage. There will be thousands of these. They will probably offer health benefits, which will make the jobs attractive (although there are NO unionized Indian Casino workers at present). However, the economic disadvantage to the local business community will be that low- and midrange-wage workers whose present employers cannot afford health benefits will be drawn away from small businesses in Saugerties and neighboring communities.[6]

Further, most of the thousands of low-wage workers will come from far away, including foreign countries. They will require thousands of low-cost rental units and will send thousands of additional children to local schools. Many of these children will need special services, such as English as a second language. In Norwich, Connecticut, which receives the majority of the children of workers at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, some 32 different languages are spoken by children of casino workers.[7]

COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE FOR LOCAL BUSINESS: The casino complex includes a huge shopping mall. At Foxwoods’ mall (smaller than the one projected for Saugerties) there are many restaurants (gourmet to fast food) and clothing stores. It also sells liquor, jewelry, tobacco, newspapers, magazines, candy, snacks, “sundries”, flowers and gasoline. In addition, gamblers  get “wampum credits” good in the “trading post” for audio/visual, home, kitchen, office, outdoors, seasonal, sports equipment and tools—100 brands, from Apple to Yamaha.[8] They can underprice local businesses offering the same goods and services.[9] Further, they discourage location here of new businesses which might offer these same goods and services.  And they discourage corporations looking for new locations or headquarters.[10] New businesses which do arrive tend to be such enterprises as pawn shops and donut shops.[11] The casino doesn’t buy from local suppliers, but from huge wholesalers.[12]

REAL ESTATE VALUES: A casino decreases the value of surrounding real estate.[13]

INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS:  A casino would drain the financial resources of Saugerties and surrounding communities forced to increase police, emergency and fire departments.[14]

SOCIAL DECAY: It would produce enormous profits for itself and these would give it enormous influence over politicians, local, state and federal.[15]

CRIME: Most studies NOT funded by the gambling industry have documented sharp increases in crime after a casino is sited in a community. The crime spreads outward and increases over the years. Crime represents an economic as well as a social problem.[16]  Even studies funded by the gambling industry backhandedly admit to increased crime by noting the community would need a stronger police presence.[17]

A substantial portion of the crime is committed by problem and pathological gamblers who are drawn to the area, or by local people who become, over time, problem and pathological gamblers. Though relatively few in numbers, these people account for a large proportion both of gambling revenues (39%) and of crime. The necessity of providing treatment for pathological gamblers is another economic cost of casinos.[18]

Other tourist attractions do not generate crime.[19]

OTHER SOCIAL ILLS: Pathological  gambling dramatically increases rates of domestic violence, divorce, suicide and bankruptcy.  Liquor flow in casinos dramatically increases the amount of drunk driving leading to traffic accidents.[20]

2.  THE HIGH RISKS OF CONTRACTING WITH A SOVEREIGN NATION

Indian Tribes are both sovereign nations and wards of the federal government. As sovereign nations, they are immune from many of the federal laws which govern all other citizens of the United States, and they are immune from all state and local law, unless the federal government otherwise legislates. As wards, they are under the direct oversight of the federal government, which is their guardian.[21] At the present moment there are disputes all around the country about the legal consequences of this dual status for the relationship between states and tribes with regard to tribal commercial enterprises in general, and casinos in particular.[22]

Therefore, contracting with a sovereign Indian nation is not like contracting with any other person or business. Only the federal congress has power to govern the American Indian Nations.  Even federal legislation must be specifically directed to Indian Nations or must specifically indicate that it is meant to cover them, or it may not.[23] State laws are inapplicable unless the federal government makes specific legislative provisions that particular state laws should apply.[24] Local law, such as property taxes and zoning regulations, do not apply at all.

The Indian Gambling Regulatory Act [IGRA], passed in 1988 for the purpose of creating economic opportunity for impoverished Indians living on reservations, requires states that allow casino gambling to negotiate compacts (i.e. treaties) with tribes to allow for Indian casinos. If a particular tribe wants a casino in a state which has casino gambling already, the state must enter a treaty to allow the tribe a casino. The terms of the compacts are controlled by the federal government, but at the present it is uncertain, even at the state level, what may be allowable in such a contract. [25]

There is no explicit authority under the IGRA for any local entity-- county or municipality --to enter a contract with a sovereign Indian Nation. It is therefore even more uncertain than on the state level what contract terms may be relied on by a municipality or county.[26]

When Indian nations buy non-reservation lands (like Winston Farm), they do so on the same terms as any other person. They are subject to all local laws pertaining to land, such as property taxes. But federal law authorizes the Indian nations to apply to the Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA] to take that land and put it into “trust”,[27] at which point it becomes “Indian lands”,[28] and all such local law ceases to apply.  At the present moment, all around the country, there are costly legal battles over whether or not particular pieces of land are or are not Indian lands, taxable or not taxable.  The town of Verona, N.Y., for example, has spent approximately $30,000 so far trying to collect property taxes assessed on off-reservation lands owned by the Oneida tribe, which contends that the land should be regarded as untaxable.[29]

There is also at this moment a federal investigation of the process by which the BIA takes land into trust, and there are lawsuits about that process.[30]  The only thing clear in this area of law is that it is unsettled. If Saugerties were to enter a contract with the Seneca-Cayuga nation it would be buying an almost inevitable law suit with an adversary who has substantially more money.

Further, once the Seneca-Cayuga have taken Winston Farm into trust, they may buy and apply to take into trust any land bordering on it. If the bordering land is taken into trust, it too becomes Indian land. The towns of Ledyard, Preston and North Stonington Connecticut have spent approximately $1.2 million over twelve years trying to stop the Mashantucket-Pequot tribe (owners of Foxwoods) from expanding their sovereign holdings from 2,000 to more than 9,000 acres. If the tribe had taken into trust all the lands specified in the lawsuit they would be sovereign now over 12 percent of Ledyard, 5 percent of Preston and 14 percent of North Stonington.[31]

There is a great deal of open land contiguous to Winston Farm. To allow the Seneca-Cayuga to buy Winston Farm and take it into trust would be an invitation for the tribe to take all the rest of that land as well, removing it from tax rolls and local governance.

3. THE END OF SAUGERTIES AS WE KNOW IT

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES: Sovereign tribal lands are not subject to federal, state or local laws protecting the environment, nor are they subject to local zoning laws.[32]

Winston Farm sits on top of a large and important aquifer.[33] In addition to the enormous amount of water the casino would use,[34] the heavy development of the land threatens the quality of the water remaining for all other users. The comprehensive water protection plan adopted by the Saugerties Conservation Advisory Committee has recommended that no more than 10% of that land be developed, that development not include more than a minimum of earthmoving, filling and excavating, that natural vegetation be preserved and protected whenever possible and that among uses forbidden on the site should be golf courses, because they rely on toxic chemicals for the upkeep of greens.[35] Three golf courses as well as many huge buildings and parking areas are proposed by the casino developers.

The casino would generate enormous amounts of traffic. The developers estimate 19,000 cars a day.  The experience of the people in the communities surrounding Foxwoods is that the burden is 50,000 cars a day. In addition to an increase in traffic accidents, these cars release fumes into the air which would be trapped in place by the mountains.[36]

The casino would operate twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, illuminating the night, which disorients migratory birds and ruins the nights for those who love the sky.

THE CHARACTER OF THE COMMUNITY: The mega-casino complex would be the first thing people see when they come to Saugerties. Saugerties would cease to be known for its scenic beauty-- the beauty of the village itself and the surrounding land. It would cease to be known for its riverfront, restaurants, inns and antique shops, for its artists and musicians, its festivals, its horse shows, or anything else of which we are proud. It would be dominated by the casino and known only as a place on the map where the casino is located. The money in the hands of the casino owners would give them enormous influence over local politicians,[37] which could assure their continued untrammeled growth. Saugerties would effectively cease to be an independent municipality.