Arbitrator Rules Against Seneca Nation in Casino Revenue Sharing

The Seneca Nation owns and operates three casinos in western New York. In the spring of 2017, they stopped making revenue sharing payments to New York States on slot machine revenues. Their contention was that they were not required to make payments when their agreement with the state was renewed after 14 years. Yesterday, an arbitration panel ruled 2-1 that the Seneca Nation needs to continue to make these payments. The payments withheld are to be determined, but they could amount to $100,000,000 or more. They had made payments of about 1 billion dollars in the 14 years since the agreement began in 2002. The original agreement called for 25% of slot machine revenues to be paid to the state. New York then shared a part of the funds to local communities. The Seneca Nation is now assessing its options.