Turning Stone Casino & Resort
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Turning Stone is the name of a casino operated by the Oneida Indian Nation in Verona, New York, which opened sometime around 1993. The casino is now a fully developed resort destination offering both on-site and an off-site golf courses, RV park, small arcade, four restaurants, a confectionery shop, table games (Blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, Pai gow poker, Let It Ride), and many types of digital slot machines. Poker is also offered at Turning Stone, and it attracts a mixture of locals and young tourists who travel to the casino; the gambling age is 18 compared to 21 in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Until the Seneca Niagara Casino opened, it was the only land-based casino in New York.
[edit] Construction
During the building phase, the feasibility of opening a casino was questioned as New York State took many steps to prevent the opening of a casino, even though it is located on sovereign land, which excludes it from New York State laws and regulations. As a fall-back plan, the casino was constructed in a way to allow it to be a small shopping mall if the Oneida tribe was unable to finish their casino plans. The local town's water utility services were inadequate for the casino's needs so the Oneida tribe paid for a new water supply to be built to provide water for the casino and the rest of the Verona.
In 1994, construction began to build an on-site hotel and a large bingo hall—to replace the old bingo hall on reservation land which funds were originally used to start the casino. Construction of the bingo hall finished in 1995, but disagreements caused the hotel to be put on hold for over a year. In hindsight, this benefited the construction of the hotel as the original design plans were going to keep the hotel and casino separate, connected by only an outdoor walkway. A redesign of the hotel allowed for more services—pool, spa, gym—and for a larger and more formal lobby that allowed the hotel and casino to be one structure.
In 2002, construction of a gaming expansion and showroom were completed to provide the only Ticketmaster approved venue in the area. The popularity of the casino gave both the funding and the need for a second and third hotel to be built on premises; construction finished in late 2004. One of the hotels is the tallest structure between Syracuse and Albany to serve the common guest; the other hotel is a luxury resort.
