Casino gambling is growing in downtown Buffalo at the same time the Seneca Nation's internet cigarettes sales are taking a hit.
Seneca Gaming Corporation officials cut the ribbon for the grand opening of a $9 million expansion of their temporary casino in downtown Buffalo on Tuesday. Gaming officials call the casino one of the most popular entertainment destinations in the city and say it attracted more than half-a-million gamblers last year. Kevin Seneca, Chairman of the Seneca Gaming Corporation, says they needed the additional space because on many nights the casino was filled to capacity. "All the machines are playing and people are coming and leaving and we said 'we got to do something', so the team got together and put in this extra 244 machines," explains Kevin Seneca.
Although business is good at the casino, it's apparently not good enough to restart construction on the rusting, partially-built $333 million permanent hotel/casino where construction stopped more than a year ago. Seneca gaming officials say they will still build it when the economy improves, but there's no timetable for resuming construction. Kevin Seneca says the marketplace has changed since they first started the project. "Pennsylvannia is doing their own gambling initiative, Ohio's doing theirs, our market share that we had at one time is starting to shrink a little bit," explains Seneca, "We're hopeful that one day in the near future we'll start work on this again." Seneca says experts have told them the exposed steel beams will remain structurally sound for another four years.
A separate issue threatening a prime Seneca Nation revenue source is the PACT act. PACT stands for Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking, and the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the bill last week. It has to be reconciled with the House version of the bill before it goes to the President to be signed into law. The legislation would prevent the U.S. Postal Service from delivering cigarettes. The Seneca Nation is already looking at ways to fight the PACT act. "There's some wording in there they really don't like," says Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder, "It gives the State a lot more oversight of Indian nations and that's our treaty, that's what we are talking about. They just can't start giving away our treaty rights."
Seneca Nation officials say they want to remind government leaders that their casinos have generated more than $475 million for the State since the opening the Seneca casino in Niagara Falls back in 2002.
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