SPITZER WON'T TRY TO CLOSE CASINOS.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: JAMES M. ODATO Capitol bureau

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said he will not try to shut down the state's two existing Native American casinos even though a state Supreme Court ruling this month found gaming pacts between the state and tribes to be void.

Spitzer said Friday he doesn't believe the court or the litigants who sued Gov. George Pataki had any intention of threatening the two operating casinos -- Turning Stone in Verona and the Akwesasne Casino in Hogansburg.

State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi found the 1993 tribal-state gaming compacts granted to the St. Regis Mohawks and the Oneida Nation of New York and the May 1999 …