Casinos Back on Front Burner

In the past couple of weeks, the possibilities of casinos for Sullivan County have roared back front and center. The big news is the visit here tomorrow by Larry Echohawk, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to tour potential casino sites and meet with proponents and opponents of casinos here. (Times Herald Record article about visit.) Then there was the announcement that a Malaysian conglomerate that was an initial investor in Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, and owns the world's largest hotel near Kuala Lumpur, has struck a deal to purchase nearly 50% of Empire Resorts, the operator of the Racino at the Monticello Raceway. (Times Herald Record Article about Kien Huat Realty investment.) And then it seems Louis Cappelli has indicated an interest in partnering with the Senecas to bring a casino to the Concord project. (Another Times Herald Record article on that.) The Sullivan County Democrat pulled it all together in a huge front page spread in today's edition.

This is like a trifecta of casinos news. But I don't know that it will have much short term impact, beyond developers and politicians having their photos taken with each other. Folks here have become pretty jaded about casino news. The muckety-mucks have cried wolf an awful lot of times over the years. Four or five years ago, the kind of news that hit the papers this week would have led to a mini land rush, with speculators placing bets on land or workforce housing or commercial space in Monticello. But a lot of those spectulators are probably more gun shy today, not to mention cash poor with less access to free flowing credit.

Comments

[Brad]

I realize this issue has been around for a while and it sounds like the new administration in Washington is more amenable to the type of land swap that would be required for a casino to be built, but I have never understood how a Native American tribe can swap land on the border of Canada for something in Sullivan county. At a certain point, why don't they just swap for some land in Times Square and get it over with already, NYC could also use the tax revenue and all the supposed new jobs that come with a casino (I mean hey its worked out great for Atlantic City right?).

Bloomberg News had an interesting article today "Foxwoods Casino Owner Said to Seek Debt Restructuring", which points out that the tribe that owns Foxwoods is likely to default on its loans with the help of its partner Kien Huat of Malaysia. Sounds like the future for a casino in Sullivan county. If this ever gets passed, hopefully the New Route 86 will be finished so that the extra traffic can be accommadated, but I won't hold my breathe.

On a related note, has there been any news on the high end race track community, Monticello Motor Club? I assume they are also due for some sort of restructuring soon.

Brad