In an ongoing battle with the state, the Seneca Nation of Indians has just been ordered to restart paying a share of the slot machine income that their land based casinos generate.
It was at the start of 2017 that the income share deal was brought to an abrupt end by the Nation, which amounted to some $100million per year.
The three casinos that were on the revenue share deal were the casinos located at Salamanca, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, and that $100 million is 25% of the slot machine revenue which should have been handed over to the state and the three local communities in which those casinos are located.
Three arbitrators were brought in to make a ruling as to whether those payments should restart or whether the Nation had good cause to stop those payments, and the three person panel decided 2-1 that the nation must continue those payments immediately.
As one would expect, with such huge amounts of cash being withheld from the three local communities, it has had a devastating effect on each of them financially, as they have had to make budget cutbacks and look at ways to replace the cash that wasn’t forthcoming.
The main reason as to why the Seneca Nation withheld the payments and, in fact, stopped paying them all together was that they believed the income share deal was due to last just 14 years, which they argue it did, and that 14 year period ended back in 2017.
In their defence, they stated that they made all of those payments with the last one being some $30million which was to cover the period up until March 2017, which they state is when the original agreement or Compact as it is known ended.
