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Developer Plans Two Catskills Casinos
A Rochester New York businessman, claiming that he's got friends in high places, is proposing two Native American casinos on hills bordering Route 17 near Monticello, New York, in the heart of the Catskills mountains, a cloe-in favorite vacation place for NYC residents, affectionately known as the Borscht Belt.
David Flaum, owner of Queensbury Plaza, said Thursday he wants to open two gambling halls in Mamakating, one on land he owns on Shawangonk Ridge, in a contemporary Adirondack theme that will blend in with the striking Catskills landscape.
"It would be modest size, smaller size, because ... we want to be very sensitive to the environment,'' he said. A bigger casino would be built later, he said, on about 375 acres he hopes to acquire two miles west on a hillside across Route 17.
Sullivan County officials say Flaum indicated that he has good relations with Gov. George Pataki's office. Further he believes the Seneca Cayuga tribe of Oklahoma would be his casino partners.
Tribal leaders say no agreement has been made with Flaum. When questioned later, Flaum said he has no special relations with Pataki's office. This year, he did donate $14,000 to six elected officials of both major parties, including Pataki.
A task force set up by Pataki declared that an unlimited number of casinos could be supported in Greene, Sullivan and Ulster counties.
Flaum, 47, who tried to purchase the Concord, says casinos can replace resorts as the new economic force in the fading economic picture of Sullivan County.
In an article in the November 1983 issue of Gambling Times magazine industry expert Stanley Roberts, a New York City native and frequent visitor to the Catskills during the summers of his youth, warned that the current infrastructure and road system in the Catskills would pose a major danger to the kind of traffic generated by new casinos. He recommended that only casinos close to thruway exits be permitted or traffic death rates would skyrocket for NYC residents.
The Monticello area is desireable due to its proximity to New York City. There is big local support for casinos in the region and the Catskills' traditional tourism economy is in bad need of a reason for new activity.
Assemblyman Jacob Gunther, D-Forestburgh, will push a bill for a constitutional amendment and public referendum to allow non-Indian casinos in New York.
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