Casino gambling, Powerball deal set

ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 24 (UPI) -- After a stalemate of more than 10 years,

the New York state Legislature is expected to approve later Wednesday the state's most expansive gambling provisions to help offset some of the billions in lost revenue due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I am hoping this gets done because the state desperately need the revenues," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican from

Brunswick. "We are doing things that a year ago would have been unheard of because we need the revenue and there are few alternatives."

In a deal brokered by Gov. George Pataki, the state Legislature is expected to approve an agreement that includes:

-- Six Indina-run casinos, 3 in western New York and 3 in the Catskills;

-- Video lottery terminals at racetracks, but Saratoga and western New York tracks could opt out if their counties chose;

-- Slot machines in casinos;

-- Allowing New York to enter the multi-state Powerball lottery

"In a perfect world, I wouldn't favor gambling but New Yorkers are going to New Jersey and Connecticut to the casinos and to play Powerball anyway, so we'll save these people the expense of traveling," Bruno said.

The state is expected to lose $10 billion in the next two years, according to Pataki's budget director, about 5 percent of the state's yearly budget, because of lost tax revenues as a result of the attacks on the World Trade

Center.

The state has enacted a hiring freeze and agencies are expected to cut their budgets in moves that Pataki estimates will gain the state about $3 billion.

According to Bruno, the state would gain about $1 billion a year from the gambling initiatives. The state would get 25 percent of the revenues from slot machines and local governments where the casinos are located would get one-quarter of the state's percentage.

However, the state won't get the profit from gaming any time soon -- it's estimated the $1 billion added to the state's more than $80-billion budget will materialize in three to four years.

The governor must first negotiate gaming compacts with each tribe and the compacts have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Interior. The Seneca Nation would run the three western New York casinos, one in Buffalo, one in Niagara Falls and one in a location still to be determined. Pataki must still negotiate with the Mohawk tribe for a compact for the Catskills' casinos.

Opponents of gambling have said that "it's a tax on the poor because they disproportionately participate and the house always has the advantage."

State Assemblyman Arthur Eve, a Democrat from Buffalo, has long opposed an increase to casino gambling in New York "because the poor, who can least afford to lose money to gambling, participate the most in proportion to their

income."

Albany-area Democratic Assemblyman, Ronald Canestrari, said gambling will cause more problems than it will solve. He also thinks six new casinos in New York are too many.

"Maybe I could support one of two casinos, but not six -- they will just compete with one another," Canestrari said. "Casinos are an indictment on our failed economic development programs."

There are two Indian-run casinos operating already in New York -- the Oneida Indians run the Turning Stone Casino near Syracuse, N.Y. and the

Mohawks run a casino in the most northern part of the state at the New York-Canadian border.