Casino German

Polls Show Majority Support Buffalo Casino

According to a recently conducted survey, a majority of Buffalo residents are in favor of the planned Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino in the Cobblestone District. Likewise, city dwellers have been found to have a good opinion of the tribe that is behind the casino, the Seneca Nation of Indians.

The survey was conducted by Zogby International through telephone polls, as commissioned by the Seneca Nation. The survey showed that 58 percent of the respondents support the presence of a casino, while 37 percent said that they are opposed to downtown gambling. 55 percent of the respondents also said that they have a favorable opinion towards the Seneca Nation of Indians, while 16 percent said that they had an unfavorable view. 903 people participated in the polls which was conducted June 22-23.

Phil Pantano, a spokesman for the Seneca Gaming Corp. said that the survey has confirmed their belief that the community is in support of the casino project and the Seneca tribe.

"It reflects what we saw on June 22 when we held the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino employment preview and attracted more than 900 people," he said.

"The people of Buffalo are excited about the project, excited about the economic benefits it will bring and excited about the possibility of 1, 000 good-paying jobs coming to the city," he added.

The city's Fillmore District showed the strongest support, with 74 percent of the residents supporting the Seneca casino. Lovejoy District came in at second, with 73 percent of the residents saying that they also favored the casino. Only Delaware District showed a majority of the poll participants opposing the casino at 54 percent, with 40 percent saying that they are for it.

A similar survey was conducted by Buffalo News in February. Overall, the new findings are in sync with the statistics that the Buffalo News polls gathered. In the previous poll, 55 percent of the respondents said that they thought a casino would be good for the city, while about 45 percent thought otherwise. This earlier survey had a margin of error of 4 percentage points, while the new poll had a plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The proposal of a downtown casino has been generally supported by both Democratic and Republican voters in the Zogby poll, with 62 percent and 52 percent in favor respectively. The favorable opinion was also shared by both men and women, with 63 percent and 53 percent respectively. However, the survey showed that the city's oldest residents, those aged 65 and over, were mostly against the casino. 49 percent said that they oppose it, while 45.2 are in favor. Opposition was most evident among those aged 70 and over, with 52 percent being anti-casino, while 41 percent was pro.

Ethnically speaking, Native Americans predictably showed the highest turnout of support, with 76 percent in favor, followed by African-Americans with 66 percent, then Caucasians with just over 54 percent. Majority of Hispanics on the other hand, oppose the casino at nearly 51 percent.

Pantano said that the survey shows that local residents have taken in the architectural plans that the Seneca Nation announced earlier in June. The site plan blends public garden space with a series of integrated buildings, among them gambling venues, a parking space with the capacity to hold 2,500 vehicles, and a headquarters for Seneca Gaming Corp.

"The grand design that we unveiled a month ago has captured people's imaginations, and that's the vision we want to move forward with, " Pantano said.