An unnamed man drove his truck through the entrance of New York State’s Cuba Casino on Monday and then shot himself, according to a local news report. The man, who has yet to be identified, succumbed to the gunshot wound at the small gaming property formally known as the Seneca Gaming & Entertainment Oil Spring. The Wellsville Sun, a local news outlet, reported that an autopsy is likely to be performed to confirm the death was a suicide.
Casino employees swiftly contacted 911, alerting Allegany County authorities about the incident and informing them that the man was armed with a shotgun. Authorities later revealed that the man’s actions were likely linked to a domestic dispute. Despite the grim situation, there were no immediate details regarding the extent of damage to the casino, which houses several gambling machines in a game room.
The man was an Allegany County resident with no prior criminal background. The gaming property, located on West Shore Road in Cuba, New York, approximately 66 miles southeast of Buffalo, has been in operation for about ten years and sits by Cuba Lake.
In a separate incident, a Kansas gaming property faced a bomb threat on Friday, resulting in the evacuation of the Kansas Star Casino for about four hours. According to Kansas TV station KWCH, no explosive device was found following a thorough search of the Mulvane, Kansas property. The search included a dog handler with a specially-trained bomb-sniffing dog.
Authorities closed entrances to both the casino and the connected hotel, the Hampton Inn & Suites, which has around 300 rooms. Alarms sounded, and visitors were ordered to leave the premises via a public intercom announcement shortly after the threat was phoned in at about 5:30 p.m. One visitor, Frank Belton, compared the experience to a routine fire alarm at a school.
Visitors were allowed to return to the complex later that night. As of the weekend, no arrests had been made in connection with the bomb threat. The casino, located about 17 miles south of Wichita, is a property of Boyd Gaming.