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Catskills Casino Advances in Deal Between Tribe and State
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
NY Times
Published: June 11, 2004

A $500 million Las Vegas-style casino in the Catskills moved significantly closer to reality yesterday when the Pataki administration signed an agreement with the Cayuga Indian Nation, settling the tribe's 200-year-old claim to 64,000 acres in upstate New York in exchange for casino revenues.

If it is built, the casino in Monticello in Sullivan County will be the closest one to New York City, only 90 miles away, and will dwarf the four Indian gambling halls already operating in the state. With analysts estimating that it could pull in $1 billion a year in revenues, the casino would most likely pose significant competition to the Atlantic City gambling resort and the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut.

The agreement is a major step forward in a 30-year effort to use gambling to revive the Catskill Mountains resort area once known as the borscht belt.

"The agreement would allow us to move forward with plans to establish the first of three new casinos in the Catskills, which would create thousands of new jobs and provide a tremendous boost to the region's economy," Gov. George E. Pataki said in a statement released yesterday afternoon.