The New Dealer

Another big hurdle is an environmental lawsuit filed in February by the Natural Resources Defense Council and three local groups against the Interior Department. The suit charges that the agency violated its own rules by not compelling Empire and the Mohawks to carry out a full-scale environmental-impact study. The casino is a "massive project that would be out of scale and out of character" with the region, the suit charges, bringing some 6 million annual visitors to a tiny village with a current population of 6,300.

Empire Resorts has been working hard to counter the environmentalists' claims. Recently the corporation announced that its proposed gambling structures would be the first "green" casino in the Northeast, constructed with "environmentally friendly systems."

Illustration by Julia Green

Details

Tune in: Tom Robbins on Spitzer and the casino deal

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More About

• Eliot Spitzer
• Charles Gargano
• Alfonse D'Amato
• World Politics
• U.S. State Politics

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How confident is the company that it's finally in the home stretch? The question was one of several put to Empire's vice president for communications, Charles Degliomini. "Sure, let me get some information together and get back to you," he said. But he didn't. Degliomini, a longtime D'Amato associate and former co-worker and close friend of Charles Gargano, was not heard from again.