Blog: Update on suit against Seneca off-reservation casino

Wednesday, April 11, 2012  

"Citizens for a Better Buffalo remains opposed to a Buffalo casino and is challenging its legality. Dianne Bennett, president of Citizens for a Better Buffalo (CBB), provides an update on the lawsuit.

What is the status of case?

There are three cases. Judge Skretny has already ruled in the plaintiffs' favor in two previous cases - that the approvals (gambling ordinances) issued by the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) purporting to allow the Senecas to operate the casino in downtown Buffalo were illegally issued. The NIGC has appealed those rulings to the US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The 2nd Circuit has put those cases on hold while Judge Skretny deals with the legality of yet a third ordinance approved by the NIGC that CBB also has challenged.

Judge Skretny ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in the prior cases and specifically held in his second decision that the land on which the proposed casino is located was not eligible for gambling because the federal law (The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act a/k/a IGRA) that allows some gambling by Indian tribes prohibits gambling on land acquired by an Indian tribe after 1988, when IGRA was enacted.

This piece of land in Buffalo was not acquired until 2005, long after IGRA's enactment. Judge Skretny ruled that to permit gambling on such land would be at odds with Congress's clear purpose and he also ruled that the Senecas must "forthwith" cease gambling on the Buffalo parcel."

Get the Story:
Casino Suit: Dianne Bennett of Citizens for a Better Buffalo Provides an Update (Buffalo Rising 4/11)

Related Stories:
Robert Porter: Seneca Nation wants state to keep promise (4/9)