DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Tuesday, November 23rd 2010, 4:00 AM
Gov. Paterson doubled down on his bid to bring an Indian casino to the Catskills.
He signed a deal with a Wisconsin-based tribe on Monday that would bring a 584,000-square-foot casino to a former auto graveyard and abandoned quarry in Sullivan County - if the feds approve.
"This compact is not a guarantee, but it's the closest we've come," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, who joined Paterson for the announcement. "Our message to the Department of Interior is simple: Just say yes."
Paterson's two-part agreement with the Stockbridge-Munsee Indians calls for the tribe to develop a casino on 333 acres off of Route 17 in Thompson, about 10 miles from the Monticello racetrack.
It also would settle a decades-old land dispute over 23,000 acres in upstate Madison County. The tribe accepted 2 acres.
Critics bashed the deal, saying it was negotiated in secret and would steal business from New Yorks casinos and slot parlors, including the one planned for Aqueduct.
The agreement faces an uncertain fate with the federal Interior Department, which has refused to let tribes acquire lands outside their traditional territories for gaming.
"The great unknown here is how much weight will be given to the fact that the land is in New York and the tribe is in Wisconsin," said Kathryn Rand, a University of North Dakota expert on Indian gaming law. "It is definitely a stretch."
An Interior Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
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