A three-person panel has been appointed to arbitrate a dispute between the Seneca Nation and New York state that's holding up payment of $460 million in gambling profits to the state and three cities where the tribe has casinos.
Seneca leaders said Wednesday that the panel will be chaired by former state Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye. Its other members are University of Arkansas Law School Dean Stacy Leeds, chosen by the Senecas, and the state's pick, New York City lawyer Henry Gutman.
The two sides are at an impasse over whether New York state's expansion of gambling violates a 2002 compact with the Senecas that allows them to run casinos in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca. The tribe stopped sending profit-sharing payments in 2009.