Gov. Paterson's harebrained Catskills casino deal...

Gov. Paterson's harebrained Catskills casino deal has put development at Aqueduct in jeopardy


You wouldn't have thought it was possible, but Gov. Paterson's lamebrained deal to open a Catskills Indian-run casino has thrown the state's confused and jerry-rigged gambling policy into further chaos.

Paterson negotiated his pact with the Wisconsin-based Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohicans in complete secrecy with less than two months left in his lame-duck term.

Then he inked it with little notice, zero chance for the public, let alone affected parties, to weigh in and little concern for the consequences.

Those consequences could be dire - and not just for the future gambling addicts this place is likely to spawn.

It was only three months ago, remember, that Paterson and legislative leaders finalized their ill-conceived plan to build a video lottery parlor at Aqueduct in Queens.

The developer they picked, Genting New York, had proposed to plow big bucks into transforming the track into an entertainment destination. Faced with unanticipated competition from a full-fledged casino a stone's throw to the north, however, Genting says it might be forced to pull the plug - and leave the Aqueduct property underdeveloped for decades.

Meanwhile, Paterson's new casino could well put out of business another video slots parlor that's struggling in nearby Monticello.

These so-called racinos are no bargain in themselves. They wrongly divert state lottery proceeds from financing public education - as mandated by the state Constitution - and use them instead to subsidize a dying horse racing industry.

But the new casino, which would pay a smaller cut to the state, is hardly a better deal.

Plus, the arrival of the Stockbridge-Munsee might well provoke tribes that actually live in New York to demand their own payback parlors - and gradually transform the state into Las Vegas East.

Whether Paterson can bind the state to a casino deal without a signoff from the Legislature, and whether the feds will okay a casino for a tribe that left New York centuries ago and lacks any bona fide reservation in the state, is far from clear.

Did short-timer Paterson think any of this through? Not that you'd notice. Another fine mess he's gotten New York into.