Seneca’s Seem To Be Getting What They Want

The Seneca Nation of Indians have opened the Buffalo Creek Casino on their tribe’s land, but it seems that not all may be what it seems. The tribe has opened a temporary slot machine casino on Perry Street right by the Michigan Avenue intersection, and they have a lot of people up in arms. They say that the slot machine casino is not legal, and cannot be there.

The casino has 119 slot machines, and is a fairly non descript sort of place to be. The problem is that basically the tribe has voted to make that parcel of land the kind of land that you can run Class III slot machines on, which are the kind of slot machines that you can play in Vegas. Philip Hogen, Chairman for the National Indian Gaming Commission said that not only are those nine acres that they are holding tribal land, but they are in fact Class III slot machine zoned. With that classification, they can also bring in cards, wheels, dice, the whole shebang, because they are Class III gambling.

However, opponents say that the casino cannot open, and that they cannot just vote to decide whether or not they can allow Class III slot machines and gambling. They say that the state, or at least Buffalo would make that decision. The group Citizens for a Better Buffalo has filed lawsuits against the tribe so that they cannot expand gambling. The group is made up of ordinary citizens from Buffalo, as well as community groups and public officials.

The suit had received federal funding from the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation which is dedicated to preserving a certain kind of lifestyle in Buffalo. They don’t want to see the casinos and the social ills that come with them come into their neighborhood. They say that the land they bought was illegal, because it was bought with gambling money and only very little of the 1990 Seneca Nation Settlement Act, and therefore it is not gambling-eligible.


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