New York arbitration panel rules against the Seneca Nation of Indians

At New York, a three-member mediation board has reportedly ruled by a two-to-one margin the casino-operating Seneca Nation of Indians must resume handing over one-quarter of its slot revenues into the state.

Long-running stalemate:

According to a Tuesday report from NewYorkUpstate.com (NYup), the federally-recognized tribe operates the Seneca Niagara Resort and Casino in the city of Niagara Falls via its Seneca Gaming Corporation business and bequeathed its final revenue-sharing payment into the state in March of 2017.

Expiration debate:

The Seneca Nation of Indians is also responsible for its Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino in Buffalo in addition to Salamanca’s Seneca Allegany Resort and Casino and had argued its 14-year gaming compact with the state had concluded by the end of 2016, which controversially supposed it was no more required to make the payments totaling approximately $100 million per year.

Renewal counter:

However, NYup reported that the state had countered via a formal action initiated by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo by asserting that the original 2002 compact was automatically renewed three years ago to maintain the tribe on the hook for those payments through the end of 2023.

Distributed payments:

Wealthy Azzopardi, Senior Advisor to Cuomo, told the NY site he was ‘thankful’ for the mediation panel’s judgment as the money obtained from the Seneca Nation of Indians is shared out between governments in 16 western New York counties. He purportedly detailed the continuing absence of those funds had forced state officials to immediately compensate Niagara Falls in September to the tune of $12.3 million.

Azzopardi into NYup…

“It was clear to us that the Seneca Nation of Indians had an obligation to continue payments, period. According to the compact, this mediation procedure was prescribed to solve conflicts and now that it has concluded, we request the Seneca Nation of Indians stop any further delays, make the state and local communities whole and resume payments.

Appeal potential:

The origin further reported that the Seneca Nation of Indians is among the biggest employers in western New York because of its stable of over 4,000 workers while the tribe’s compact payments between 2002 and 2016 had improved the state by in excess of $1 billion.

Rickey Armstrong, President for the Seneca Nation of Indians, supposedly told the site that the tribe now intends to ‘choose the proper time to examine and respond to the opinion and proceed forwards ’ and didn’t rule out the likelihood that an appeal would be forthcoming.

According to Armstrong…

“We continue to think, as anyone who has read the compact, the Seneca Nation of Indians’ compact payment obligation has been fulfilled and we think we had an obligation to the Seneca Nation of Indians’ individuals to shield the compact as it was written and agreed upon. None of the changes for this mediation view.