Large-Scale Casino for Seneca Nation of Indians on Hold

The plan for a large-scale downtown casino has been delayed by the Seneca Nation of Indians. The casino that was to have created 1,000 new jobs was delayed. Instead The Seneca Nation announced on Wednesday, August 2, it will build a temporary 5,000-square-foot gaming site within a year.

Unexpectedly, the 100,000-square-foot casino to be built at the section of Fulton Street was halted. Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr. said, "I am announcing today that discussions between the Seneca Nation and the city are over and that we will begin construction this fall of a small 5,000-square-foot temporary casino with 100 slot machines." He added, "This facility will ensure that we meet our compact deadline as we work to finalize designs for a less magnificent permanent casino on our Buffalo Creek territory. It will not be the glorious beacon we had envisioned."

Mayor Brown said, "We would have to consider this deception. They gave us two design options in documents needed to pass environment review. Now, if they give us something different, it would have to be considered deception." Mayor Byron W. Brown learned about Seneca's plan to build a temporary facility from the news.

Synder, who is also president and CEO of the Seneca Erie Gaming Corporation, said "Incompetent negotiation tactics and a leadership failure at the highest levels of the city government" this caused him to change his plan for the casino project. He said that the 100,000-square-foot can no longer be built because the city refuses to sell the stretch of Fulton Street, he announced in June.

Synder would not disclose the design and the cost of the new temporary casino would be and definitely it would not give 1,000 new jobs anymore as expected.