(3:45 PM) Arbitration Panel: Seneca Nation Should Share Casino Revenue
BUFFALO (AP) — An arbitration panel has sided with New York state in its bid for more than $100 million a year in proceeds from the Seneca Indian Nation’s three casinos.
The western New York tribe stopped making payments to the state in 2017, saying its revenue-sharing obligation under a 2002 compact had expired after 14 years.
But the panel Tuesday said the obligation to share 25 percent of slot-machine revenues renewed with the compact as a whole.
Seneca President Rickey Armstrong Sr. says the nation will review the decision. He didn’t say whether payments would resume.
The Senecas shared more than $1 billion before stopping payments, which the state then shared with the casino host cities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca.
Salamanca officials say the city missed out on about $9 million.