Gambling in the Catskills
Not everyone's so sure. "This is far from a slam dunk," says Kathryn Rand, a North Dakota law professor and gaming expert who is co- director of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy.
Just a week prior to Spitzer's announcement, Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior James Cason notified 35 tribes that new rules may sharply limit any approvals of off- reservation casinos. The letter was similar to one that Cason sent in December to Pataki concerning his agency's decision to sign off on the environmental aspect of the proposed Monticello casino, issuing a "finding of no significant impact." But Cason essentially told the governor not to get too excited.
"Governor, please note that we share the concerns that many have expressed about the implications of off-reservation gaming," he wrote.
Those are also the views of Cason's boss, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, a former Idaho governor who has been steadfastly opposed to the practice. "I think he's worried it's a slippery slope," said Steven Light, Rand's co-director at the gaming institute, who counts 50 separate off-reservation proposals now pending. "If Kempthorne says yes to one, there's a precedent set to sign off on others. Then he has to provide a rationale that the other 49 are different," says Light.
There's also a delicate little problem for the Bush administration in the form of Jack Abramoff. The notorious GOP lobbyist and con man hoodwinked casino-seeking tribes out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, something Republicans would rather not remind voters about. "The Abramoff scandal has pretty much colored how Congress and the administration look at this," says Light.
[link|http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0718,robbins,76509,2.html/1|The New Dealer]
I wonder if Spitzer took the support of the old guard NY repos and signed the letter of support knowing it would be difficult to get past the other hurdles and in the mean time he would have time to pursue other agenda items with less opposition. It just seems too brazen to be the one of the first high profile projects without some kind of hidden agenda.