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Buffalo casino expansion to open today

A $9 million expansion that added 212 slot machines to the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino will be unveiled this afternoon.

Officials from the Seneca Gaming Corp. and the Seneca Nation of Indians are scheduled to attend an afternoon ceremony to mark the completion of the casino expansion.

Work began in October on the expansion of the temporary Buffalo facility at Michigan Avenue and Perry Street to add 5,300 square feet of gaming space. The expanded casino brings the total number of slot machines at the Buffalo site to 445, according to Seneca Gaming Corp. reports.

Senecas break ground for expansion of casino in Buffalo

As leaders of Seneca Gaming Corp. broke ground today on an $8 million expansion of its temporary downtown casino, Buffalo resident Henry Garrett glanced at a rusting steel skeleton that overshadows the small facility.

"I'm just hoping they will finish the construction they have over there," said Garrett, referring to suspended work on the permanent $333 million Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino. "It would really enhance the city."

The expansion of the temporary casino will add about 5,300 square feet of gaming space to the facility at Michigan Avenue and Perry Street. The new area will accommodate between 200 and 250 additional slot machines, doubling the number of slots. Five new permanent jobs will be created in a casino that currently employs about 50 people, said Seneca Gaming Corp. Chairman Jeffrey L. Gill.

Buffalo casino can stay open

A federal judge has denied a request from anti-gambling advocates to immediately close down the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino.

U.S. District Judge William Skretny, Friday, in a four-page ruling, recognized a decision earlier this month from the National Indian Gaming Commission and the U.S. Department of Interior that the casino is being operated legally and with guidelines outlined by both agencies. Skretny made his ruling as the latest chapter in the complex legal battle being waged by the Citizens Against Casino in Erie County against Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino.

The decision is being hailed by the Seneca Nation of Indians, which operates that casino, and questioned by those opposed to the tribe's operation.

Feds may shut down temporary Buffalo casino

The federal government told the Seneca Nation on Wednesday that its temporary casino in downtown Buffalo is in violation of federal law and could be shut down in five days.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the National Indian Gaming Commission issued a "notice of violation" to the Senecas regarding the small casino, now operating in a blue metal building on a nine-acre site where the Senecas want to build a much larger $333 million casino and hotel complex.

In July, U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny revoked the Senecas' authority for the temporary casino. Skretny called a federal agency's July 2007 decision to allow gambling on the site "arbitrary, capricious and not in accordance with the law."

Casino: Feds, Senecas seek court transfer

The federal government has filed a motion in U.S. District Court asking that a lawsuit filed by a group led by the Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County be transferred to the National Indian Gaming Commission for further review.

The remand motion, the latest legal maneuvering between the Seneca Nation of Indians and those who oppose its Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, is based on significant changes in the controlling law, as was recently interpreted by the U.S. Department of Interior. The remand motion comes as the Seneca Nation of Indians also filed an "amicus brief" -- or friend of the court brief -- that supports the federal action. The amicus brief was filed because the Seneca Nation is not a party to the ongoing lawsuit, which anti-casino advocates filed against the National Indian Gaming Commission.

"A remand to the NIGC is the only constitutionally appropriate option available in these circumstances," said Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law School professor of constitutional law and the Seneca Nation's legal consultant.

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