Park Place's successor company, Harrah's, has a problem that dates back to the year 2000. Arthur Goldberg, then chief executive of Park Place Entertainment Corp approached the money losing Akwesasne Mohawk Casino in Hogansburg, N.Y. with a bail out deal. The deal with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe giving them exclusive rights to a joint venture with Park Place Entertainment Corp. to develop a casino in the Catskills in upstate New York.

Harrah’s has pushed back the deal and 7 years later the casino has not been built. The current leaders of the tribe speculate that the deal was only meant to protect the profits at four other of the casinos formerly owned by Park Place and now owned by Harrah’s which are in Atlantic City, N.J.

Soon after the deal was signed, Park Place suggested a Kutsher’s Country Club instead of a site at the racetrack in Monticello, N. Y.
The Monticello site and already received an Interior Department approval for off-reservation gaming. Kutsher’s Country Club would need to start at square one to get approval.
The tribal lawyer Brad Waterman, cautioned in a memo that "Worst and perhaps most realistic case scenario: no Catskills casino, ever," He also wrote "In the meantime, Park Place benefits -- no competition for its Atlantic City casinos."
Tribe members sued Park Place for interfering with the building of the casino in Catskills and won a $1.8 billion default judgment. The Park Place lawyers did not bother to show up in tribal court. In July, the judgment was affirmed and a $1 billion interest owed judgment was tacked on.

This summer the tribe sued again in U.S. Federal Court to enforce the tribal judgment.


- 2007-10-29