Michael Connors, Chief
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe
Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort – Hogansburg, NY
mohawkcasino.com / srmt-nsn.gov
BENEFITS OF GAMING: Gaming dollars have benefited Akwesasne in countless ways, from the basic services of health, welfare and educational benefits that all tribes generate, to employment opportunities both in Akwesasne and the surrounding area. We are in an economically depressed rural area. Between the tribal government, Mohawk Networks (broadband), and the casino operation, we generate a combined 1,400+ jobs to our area, with a Native employment percentage of 61 percent overall.
We also use our gaming dollars to fill in the gaps with state or federal funding shortfalls, such as road maintenance/repairs.
Gaming dollars also provide additional funding to local non-profits such as the Akwesasne Boy’s & Girl’s Club, the local volunteer fire department, and the Akwesasne Freedom School (local language immersion school), among others.
Gaming as a whole also supports tourism in the area by driving non-local traffic to our local, community member-owned businesses, such as convenience stores (gas/cigarettes), tribal licensed/member-owned cannabis retail stores, racetrack, and restaurants, among many other businesses. Our gaming dollars and traffic support thousands of jobs in these other local economic areas.
GOALS & INITIATIVES: Recent initiatives for the tribal government have included updating our aging buildings/infrastructure. Gaming dollars, ARPA dollars, and CARES ACT dollars have all greatly contributed to this effort. We also invest our gaming dollars into efforts for language/culture revitalization. Efforts are continuing to meet the needs of our community with housing developments and land acquisitions, which increase the land base of our community.
The main initiative for our casino is to continue to recover from the COVID pandemic. As our community is bisected by the U.S./Canada border, our Akwesasne Mohawk Casino relies greatly on Canadian day traffic. We lost that traffic completely while the international border was closed and are slowly recovering. Other tribal casinos maintained their radius of players, while half of our radius was closed for a significant amount of time.
To assist with that recovery, our casino recently opened a “smoking” room with 120 slot machines, with an air purification system. We also purchased a hotel across the parking lot to complement our casino hotel. That brought our room count from 150 to 261, in addition to our 19 RV spots. When the smoking room at the casino opened in August, the top
floor of the Players Inn Hotel also converted 41 rooms into smoking rooms, meeting player demands.
LEGISLATIVE: Legislatively, we continue to pursue a land claims settlement, which will need to be ratified by Congress to regain land that was sold in violation of the Non-Intercourse Act. We continue to regain acreage in pursuit of that effort. Over the past several years, we have also filed and received approval for over 200 acres to be returned under the land into trust process. We also support the proposed SLOT Act, which would raise the limits for taxable gaming wins to adjust for inflation since 1977, when it was last adjusted.