By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

With the desire by New York leaders to open casino development to non-Indian groups and continued strained relations with Albany, the Seneca Nation of Indians started a statewide advocacy and advertising campaign that focuses on its economic contributions to Western New York and protection of its exclusive right to casino gaming in the region.

The blitz came on the eve of Gov. Cuomo's annual State of the State address, in which he may push for the opening of  non-Indian operated casinos in New York.

"Over 10 years, we've demonstrated our expertise in this industry, our commitment to the region and our achievements in doing what we said we would with our three casinos," said Seneca President Robert Odawi Porter. "We certainly hope and expect that state legislators and the governor would not ignore another agreement with Indians and will respect the 'carve-out' of our exclusivity zone."

The "Senecas Mean Business" campaign will promote the benefits of the nation's $1.1 billion economy, including the $125 million annual payroll for 6,000 employees and the $167 million spent annually with local businesses and suppliers.

The campaign will also seek the support of neighboring communities as it works to maintain the exclusive rights to casino gaming granted by the 2002 compact with New York state, for which it invested $900 million over the past decade.

Porter said a recently conducted poll commissioned by the Seneca Nation of Indians found that 41 percent of respondents knew that the Seneca Nation has a zone of gaming exclusivity in Western New York, where state law says no competing casinos are permitted.

Given that the state promised the Seneca Nation exclusivity, 71 percent of respondents felt that other casinos - especially those owned by publicly traded companies from Las Vegas or Asia that would remove profits from New York - should not be permitted in Western New York.

"If New York legislators and a majority of New Yorkers decide that casinos are a good thing statewide and approve amending the state constitution to get them, we would simply maintain and argue that existing state law giving us exclusive gaming rights in our region must be respected and continued," Porter said.

The campaign also is designed to increase awareness of the Senecas and their rights for state legislators and average New Yorkers from other regions who may not understand their history and achievements.

The campaign most publicly takes the form of radio advertising in Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Salamanca and Albany, starting Jan. 5. It also is seeking support statewide from business, political and community leaders, vendors, regular casino customers and Nation employees. Kiosks now stand in Seneca Gaming Corp.'s Niagara Falls and Allegany casinos, where patrons can obtain information about statewide and nation gaming benefits and write electronic letters to their legislators.

Campaign organizers based the strategy on the poll of 1,000 Western New Yorkers that showed overwhelming support for gaming operations and negligible backing for statewide casino gambling.

In the poll's major finding, 84 percent favored continued operation of Seneca Nation gaming in its Western New York exclusivity zone and payments from it to the state and local communities. That is superior to wide-open, Las Vegas- or Malaysian-owned commercial casinos statewide, those polled said.

On Dec. 12, the nation formally filed for arbitration over New York's violation of its gaming compact that guarantees the nation a 14-county Western New York exclusivity zone for casino gambling. The decision came after more than a year of unproductive discussions with state officials from two gubernatorial administrations. The nation withheld what now totals more than $350 million in payments to the state, for gaming activity starting Jan. 1, 2009, because of the violations. Between 2002 and 2008, the Seneca Nation paid the state and the three communities that host Seneca casinos $476 million under the compact's provisions.

The compact, signed in 2002, states: "The Nation shall have total exclusivity with respect to the installation and operation of ... gaming devices, including slot machines, within the geographic area defined by ..."

The campaign website is www.senecasmeanbusiness.com.