New York’s Seneca Indian Nation is making a last-ditch effort to overturn a ruling issued in binding arbitration that requires the tribe to continue to share machine gaming revenue with the state of New York and the municipalities surrounding its three casinos in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca.
The payments, agreed as part of a federally mandated gaming compact between the Senecas and the state, amounted to 25 percent of the annual win from the devices and had totaled around $1.4 billion when the original 14-year compact expired at the end of 2016. The tribe unilaterally ceased the payments at that point, claiming they were not included in earlier negotiations that had extended the compact another seven years.
The state disagreed, and the dispute went to a three-member arbitration panel, which decided early in 2019 that the compact extension implied continuation of the payments.
The tribe challenged the decision in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York but was rebuffed when the court later that year found that the arbitration panel’s decision valid and directed the Senecas to resume the required payments.
A U.S. Court of Appeals challenge also failed when a three-judge panel sitting for the Second Circuit in New York City issued a decision in February unanimously upholding the District Court ruling and rendering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court unlikely to succeed.
The Senecas now claim that an April 15 letter from the U.S. Department of the Interior raises issues about the legality of the payments under the compact extension.
“(We) have serious concerns about the extension of revenue-sharing during years 15-21 because we did not conduct an analysis of the extension,” wrote Paula L. Hart, director of the Office of Indian Gaming, Office of the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs. “We caution the parties about their reliance on the terms (of the compact renewal) because we have not determined that they are lawful.”
Based on this, the tribe has filed a motion with the District Court seeking a stay of the arbitration order and supporting court rulings to allow 45 days for Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to review the terms of the compact extension.
A spokesperson for the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo, which claims the tribe now owes the state some $435 million dating back to 2017, dismissed the motion as another delaying tactic.
“It’s clear that the nation is trying every option to find an arbiter to let them withhold money that every other decision-maker who has heard this case has said was owed to the state, some of which would be distributed to the localities that are sorely needing resources,” the spokesperson said. “We have every confidence this will only lead to the same result.”
