Why Casinos are the Wrong Bet for the Catskills

NOTE: The following is a compilation of available information edited and written by the Catskill Mountainkeeper in order to help educate the public.

The threat of multiple massive casinos in the Catskills is now more imminent than ever. There is an aggressive federal push to get the new Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to change the rules that currently make it extremely difficult for Native American tribes to build casinos hundreds of miles away from their reservations. If the federal government alters its policies, this will open Sullivan County to the strong possibility of at least three “off-reservation” Atlantic City sized casinos by the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe, the Seneca Nation, the St. Regis Mohawks or other competing tribes. Catskill Mountainkeeper strongly opposes bringing off reservation casinos to the Catskills because of the pervasive and compelling environmental, social and economic problems that will without question accompany casino development.

Environmental Problems

Casinos are being proposed for especially sensitive ecological areas, such as the planned 333 acre complex directly along a mile of the Neversink River. Should these casinos be built they will:

• Destroy broad swathes of the area’s thriving habitat, plant and animal life
• Compromise our water resources through deforestation, erosion, and construction blasting
• Increase the risk of toxic substances entering surface and ground water
• Exacerbate the danger of flooding - threatening all of our homes and property.

Currently 1,000,000 visitors travel up Route 17 to visit the Catskills each year. The combined visitors estimated for only one casino is more than 6 million! Building three casinos could bring millions more. This 24-hour a day influx will overwhelm our roadways, making it extremely difficult for full time and part time residents to move around the area for business or pleasure. It will discourage the existing tourist base from continuing to come to enjoy our natural beauty. Emissions from so many autos will contaminate our air and noticeably foul the quality of what we breathe.

While it is clear that these environmental dangers exist, no comprehensive environmental review has been completed to quantify the overall impact of bringing the casinos here. In fact, during the Bush Administration, the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs determined that one of these mega casino projects would have no significant impact on the environment and thus no full environmental review was necessary.

Economic Problems

While casinos are promoted as helping the local economy by bringing people to the area and increasing the local business base, each casino will be a self-contained destination “city” that will have all of the services, food, and retail outlets that visitors will need. They will not bring new revenue to our existing infrastructure of restaurants, bars, service establishments and small mom and pop businesses as promised. Instead they will create new levels of competition causing many of our businesses to go out of business.

Social Problems

Based on what has happened when gambling has been introduced in other communities, it is proven that it brings problems like increased crime, prostitution, poverty, violence, child and elder abuse, chemical dependency and suicide. These affect virtually everyone in our community. Gambling addiction is recognized as a pathological and compulsive mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association. Desperate to “chase” and recover gambling losses, pathological gamblers often turn to crime.

Warren Buffet said it well in an interview with Nebraska’s Gambling with the Good Life on September 15, 2004 when speaking against casinos that were being proposed in his home state: "It's certainly clear that a given percentage of people will become addicted and use money they've got no business using, and that percentage is not a small percentage." "Addictions produce crime. If you have a large group of people who are addicted to drugs, you'll have more crime. If you have a large group of people who are addicted to gambling, you'll have more crime.

People get into impossible situations when they get addicted to something like that. And some people will opt for crime, some will opt for bankruptcy, some may commit suicide." "We're going to have drug addicts in this country, but I don't think the state ought to get in the business where it hopes there are more drug addicts and starts selling needles. And we're going to have gambling addicts in this country but I don't think that the state ought to become the sponsor of spreading that addiction."

Who Benefits and Who Loses

Legislators are pushing hard to establish casino gambling in the Catskills so they can raise revenues without confronting the difficult task of raising taxes. They hope this will avoid the general outcry that comes from the public when taxes are raised. In effect they are knowingly exchanging all of the negative outcomes of casinos for a dramatic infusion of cash. The casino owners, Native American tribes who live hundreds of miles away from the Catskills and developers who live out of state and even out of the country, will not leave any of their casino profits in our area. What they will leave our communities is the brunt of the high cost of crime, overtaxed infrastructures, pollution, etc.

A heavy burden will also fall on those people who patronize the casinos – the ones who provide the revenues to government and profits to the developers. Warren Buffet said it extremely well in 2004: "For every lucky person there are hundreds of thousands who just keep feeding the kitty and, net, it's a big loser for the citizenry." "I think it's cynical on the part of the state to raise money from people who basically can't afford it by promising them a dream that is not going to come true for any but the tiniest tiniest fraction of the people who participate, and that causes people to get into the kind of trouble I hear about every day."

"If you take a million people and fifty or thirty or some number are going to change their circumstances dramatically for the better, but you're going to have the other 999,000 plus who are going to lose the ability to take their families to a movie, to buy a toy for their kid, or worse yet, become an addict and lose everything they have including their self-respect and break up their family. I just think that's a terrible trade off."

What is the Alternative to Grow Our Economy?

Catskill Mountainkeeper strongly believes in the potential of economic revitalization in the Catskills. Our vision is to focus on the industries that we do best - like the resurgence of farming, farm to market efforts, main street revitalization, tourism, hotel development, the performing arts, alternate energy production, low impact industry, small business and the advancement of higher education. The Catskill area is a special, unique and irreplaceable place. We believe in smart sustainable growth that will retain our rural nature, wonderful vistas, open spaces, waterways, old growth forests and farmland. Some of the projects we are currently championing are:

The establishment of a New School University campus in Sullivan County This would be a partnership between the New School, Orange County Community College, Sullivan County Community College and the Center for Discovery, the largest private employer in Sullivan County and would focus on establishing a campus offering degrees in healthcare, agriculture and music therapy. This initiative, if successful, would provide jobs, bring new consumers into the area and expand our cultural base.

The creation of a model farm in partnership with NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association of New York). Mountainkeeper is working with seven other nonprofit organizations to create a model farm where prospective farmers can learn everything about sustainable farming from crops and equipment to business and product strategy. The Catskills is ripe for a farming resurgence – we have the land, we have access to major markets, but we don’t have enough people who either want to stay in farming or go into farming. By helping farmers acquire 21st century expertise they will be able to use less land, grow higher profit crops and become successful niche farmers who can compete with the megalithic corporate farms. The Model Farm project fits perfectly into important trends such as Buy Local, the Slow Food Movement and others that are transforming how Americans purchase and consume their food.

When you consider all the facts – Casinos ARE the wrong bet for The Catskills!
• They will bring damage and destruction to large swathes of our environment
• They will bring unhealthy and destructive air pollution
• They will bring a huge increase in vehicular traffic to our roads
• They will introduce new levels of social problems and addiction to our area
• The developers will remove profits from our area leaving behind only problems
• Local businesses won’t get new business, they’ll have new competition
• Tax revenues will provide a quick fix for politicians without addressing real issues
• Avoiding environmental impact studies is evidence of irresponsible opportunism

It will be a long and hard uphill fight!
• The business interests pushing for casinos are well connected and financed
• Some government leaders have decided to trade our welfare for quick cash
• Casino interests are moving quickly before opposition can mobilize

The Catskill Mountainkeeper needs your help TODAY!
• Register your opposition – Click here to sign a petition
• View the signatures on the No Catskills Casinos petition here
• Forward this page to your friends and neighbors - click here
• Contribute to us so we can continue to lead the fight – Click here to give
• Get involved, it’s your Catskills – Click here to volunteer