A New York judge has ruled in favor of the Oneida Indian Nation in a lawsuit against the New York State Gaming Commission regarding information that the tribe had been denied access to after it had submitted a Freedom of Information request.
The material the Oneida Nation was interested in was concerned with the state gambling regulator’s decision to grant three casino licenses for Upstate New York. In December 2014, the state Gaming Facility Location Board recommended three casino projects and last year developers were awarded the necessary casino licenses for the operation of the new gambling venues, with those being Rivers Casino & Resort at Schenectady’s Mohawk Harbor, Montreign Resort Casino in Thompson, and del Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre.
State attorneys had claimed that the documents the Oneidas had requested contained “subjective advice and opinion” and were therefore protected from public view. However, Supreme Court Justice Vincent Reilly from the Schenectady County Supreme Court ruled that most of the material was actually statistical or factual data and tabulations. In other words, it should be open to public view.
A spokesperson for the New York State Gaming Commission said that the regulator is reviewing the Supreme Court’s decision but it is still unclear whether it would appeal the ruling.
The Oneida Nation is currently operating Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, a casino complex located less than 100 miles away from the proposed location for del Lago. The tribe has repeatedly pointed out that a new casino in the region would have quite a negative effect on a gaming market that has already been saturated.
The Oneidas have been fighting the project, since it became clear that del Lago was among the preferred candidates for the construction of the state’s first commercial casinos. A number of lawsuits have been filed against the project. And last summer the tribe even launched an advertising campaign, claiming that the new casino would only steal jobs from existing ones. However, the Oneidas’ efforts to prevent the project from being materialized have not brought much success so far, as construction work on del Lago has already started.
Last year, the Oneida Nation launched its second casino – Yellow Brick Road. The Oz-themed gambling complex is located in Chittenango, not far from Turning Stone.
New York-based tribes have operated casinos around the state for years now. And the above-mentioned three projects would result in the establishment of New York’s first full-scale, Las Vegas-style commercial casinos.
