New York State has scored a favorable ruling from a third federal court in its battle with the Seneca Nation of Indians regarding millions in casino revenue payments.
Earlier in December, U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, said the Senecas must abide by an arbitration panel’s 2019 decision awarding the state a quarter of slot-machine revenues from three Western New York casinos. Skretny rejected the tribal argument that the award should be turned down because the Department of the Interior secretary didn’t review revenue-sharing payments for a renewal period of a 2002 agreement with the state that permitted the tribe to operate casinos in Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Salamanca.
Skretny wrote that he found “insufficient basis” to conclude that the Seneca Nation will face “extreme and undue hardship” if the court doesn’t cancel its earlier decision.
“It has failed to establish that vacating the judgment will not impose a hardship on the State, which has been waiting to receive the disputed payments for more than four years.”
Seneca Nation President Matthew Pagels released a statement to The Buffalo News saying the Nation will “carefully consider all of our options. Protecting our agreements and the long-term viability and strength of our gaming enterprises, along with the thousands of jobs we provide in the local economy, is of paramount importance,” he said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown and Niagara Falls Mayor Robert M. Restaino, whose communities were denied millions of dollars in casino revenue, feel vindicated by the judge’s ruling.
“I think it is time to move past this issue and for the payments to be made to the state and the local governments so that we can focus on the future of a relationship which has benefitted both Buffalo’s residents and the Seneca Nation,” Brown said,
Restaino said, “I know there are conversations going on and I think that is really where the energy needs to be. This chapter needs to be closed and we need to move on.”
The state gambling commission spokesman Brad Maione said the Senecas need to ante up the payments.
“It is past time for the Nation to honor its obligations under the compact and the judgment. the nation has exhausted all of its appeals, and the nation’s most recent effort to manufacture an extrajudicial avenue for delay has been denied.”
The compact with the state gave the Senecas exclusive rights to operate the three casinos with 25 percent of slot proceeds shared with the state and host cities. The annual casino revenue sharing payments amounted to more than $100 million, and local municipalities counted on the funds to help balance their budgets.
The compact runs through 2023 but contained an automatic renewal at the end of 2016 if neither side had an issue. The Senecas ceased payments in 2017, arguing the original compact didn’t spell out further payments to the state.
The payments are some $450 million, now in an escrow account.
In related news, the three downstate casino licenses in New York have attracted intense interest from gambling’s elite. It may seem surprising, then, that the Shinnecock Nation is laying the groundwork to be at the negotiating table for one of the licenses.
While that plays out, the tribe will continue its plans to build a casino outside Southampton Village with a bingo parlor, 1,000 video lottery terminals and 30 Texas Hold ‘em poker tables, according to the Sag Harbor Express. As a sovereign nation, the tribe does not need approval from the state or the local government to build the property.
In its effort to be in the running for a downstate license, Tribal Chairman Bryan Polite and Vice Chairman Randy King responded to a series of questions from the state to assess their position.
“All politics is local,” King said, adding that “the tribe has been historically shut out of negotiating a gaming contract” by the state.
Polite blames former Governor, Andrew Cuomo. New governor Kathy Hochul “seems focused on getting a lot of these things across the finish line.”
The tribe is an interested party because it yearns to build a casino resort. It is also an affected part of the equation due to its desire to protect its territory on Long Island from encroachment by another group.
The U.S. National Indian Gaming Commission is now reviewing an environmental impact statement for the Southampton Village proposal.
