Indians got exclusive rights to gaming in Central NY
With a check for nearly $4 million to New York State, the Oneida Indian Nation has shown its hands, revealing just how much it makes from slots at its Turning Stone Casino in Verona, the Syracuse Post-Standard reports.
Based on that first payment, which comprises 25 percent of slot machine revenues, the newspaper calculates that total slot win at the Verona casino is more than $200 million a year. Based on that figure, the state can expect to collect about $51 million a year from Turning Stone, matching Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2013 estimate of $50 million.
The revenue-sharing payment is the first one made by the nation to the state since Turning Stone opened in 1993. Last year, the nation struck a deal with the state, agreeing to make quarterly payments in exchange for a monopoly on casinos in nine Central New York counties. Turning Stone has about 2,000 machines.
The nation does not have to share revenues from table games such as blackjack, and it also may keep everything it clears on restaurants, concerts, and sales of gasoline and cigarettes. Under the agreement, the nation charges and keeps its own sales tax.
The state will send some of the Turning Stone casino money back to local governments, the Post-Standard reported: Oneida County will get 25 percent of the Turning Stone payments, plus $2.5 million a year; Madison County will get $3.5 million a year added to a one-time payment of $11 million from the Oneidas in March; and Onondaga County will get about $2.5 million a year.
Seven other counties?Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Lewis, Oswego and Otsego? will share about $2.5 million.
