Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration took steps in several recent disputes involving lucrative upstate gambling rights that were in line with the interests of Delaware North, where hubby Bill Hochul works, a new report says.
Just last month, the governor agreed to a last-minute tweak to the state budget to restructure the public-private board overseeing western New York’s Batavia Downs hotel and casino, a competitor of the multibillion-dollar firm where Bill Hochul is senior counsel, the New York Times said.
While Delaware North says it is no longer interested in acquiring Batavia, the restructuring could presumably make such a move easier, the outlet said — although acknowledging there is no evidence Hochul or her husband has done any wrongdoing in any of the cases.
The board’s restructuring came after the Hochul administration froze $564 million in assets of the Seneca Nation — another Delaware North rival — and used $418 million of the money last year for a new stadium for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in her hometown.
According to the governor’s office, the state froze Seneca’s assets last year because the company failed to keep up payments that were part of an agreement to pay off overdue revenues and defaulted.
Delaware North was reportedly in line for the concessions contract at the new Bills venue, although the stadium’s overseers have since said that they will award the contract to another company in 2026.
“What the governor did was literally putting politics over people,” Seneca President Matthew Pagels alleged in November.
“It will never be forgotten what happened,” Pagels claimed.
Hochul aides are now negotiating a new agreement with Seneca Nation for the state’s share of gambling revenues from its three casinos, as well as defining the area where it would have exclusive casino rights — a decision that would affect Delaware North, the Times said.
The current deal is set to expire at the end of the year, the Buffalo News reported this month.
Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia and Counsel Liz Fine are to handle the final agreement — which Hochul would have to sign off on, the Buffalo outlet said.
Hochul made a big show in 2021 of signing a recusal agreement for any dealings involving Delaware North, although there is no record that the document was ever sent to the state ethics board.
In a statement Sunday, JC Seneca, a member of the Seneca council, said that coming up with a new gambling agreement with the state “should have been negotiated sooner” but that Hochul’s ties to rival Delaware North through her husband “certainly makes negotiations more difficult than they should be.
“If the governor is not at the negotiating table [because of recusals}, it makes things much more difficult,” Seneca said.
William Hochul, who is vice president and head counsel at Delaware North, earned more than $650,000 from the company last year, the bulk of the $1 million the Hochuls made, tax returns show.
In a statement Sunday, the governor’s office denied any possible impropriety in dealings involving Delaware North.
“Governor Hochul has taken unprecedented steps to restore trust in government, including releasing her recusal policies, and seeks to avoid even the appearance of conflict in executing the duties that New Yorkers elected her to do,” the statement said.
Delaware North is not a party to any dealings involving Seneca Nation, nor has the company expressed an interest in Batavia Downs, officials said.