page_title: George Pataki
section_title: Casinos and upstate development
hierarchical_section_title: George Pataki / Governorship and political positions / Fiscal policy / Casinos and upstate development
context_page_description: George Elmer Pataki is an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 53rd Governor of New York. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York and went on to be elected to the State Assembly and the State Senate. In 1994, Pataki ran for Governor of New York against three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo, defeating him by a margin of more than three points as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Pataki would himself be elected to three consecutive terms, and was the third Republican Governor of New York elected since 1923. As of 2020, Pataki is the most recent Republican to hold any statewide office in New York.
  In early 2015, Pataki began exploring a candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016; he announced his candidacy on May 28, 2015. On December 29, 2015, Pataki ended his campaign before the Republican presidential primaries had begun.
context_section_description: Pataki has been a long advocate of Native American casinos in upstate New York. He has proposed the creation of several casinos throughout Upstate with the revenue being shared by the state, tribe and municipal government. In the 1990s he was able to secure the creation of Turning Stone Resort & Casino on an Indian reservation outside Syracuse. His plans to create new casinos were blocked by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver until after the September 11 attacks, when Silver was persuaded that more money could come into the state government. Pataki soon signed an agreement to create new casinos in the Catskills, Niagara Falls, and in Buffalo. The Seneca Niagara Casino opened in Niagara Falls in January 2003.
  As a part of the creation of the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, an agreement was reached to give a percentage of the slot machine revenue to the City of Niagara Falls each year to spend on local tourism projects and projects relating to hosting the casino. Money was allocated for 2003, but disputes have come up since then. Part of the dispute is a claim by Niagara County to receive a share of the money for county government projects and another part had to do with restructuring the local commission charged with allocating the money. Pataki has called for the money to be given to a state entity he created to spur economic development in Niagara Falls, thus leaving the money under his control, a decision that is opposed by local leaders.
caption: Pataki and philanthropist Yuko Nii
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