Salamanca confident in casino funding

The Seneca Nation announced last week that they would stop sharing slots revenue but Salamanca’s mayor said nothing has changed.

US.- In an attempt to soothe troubled waters, Salamanca Mayor Michael Smith said that nothing has changed regarding the slots revenue that they usually get from Seneca Nation. The tribe announced last week that the next payment will be the last one they make to the state of New York.

Smith commented that Todd Gates, president of the Seneca Nation, told him not to worry about the revenues and even hinted that they would continue the payments to host communities from the Buffalo, Salamanca and Niagara Falls casinos. “We watched President Gates press conference on Thursday. They asked us not to panic and we’re not panicking.” According to tribe officials, they’re acting upon the terms of the compact that they signed in 2012, which established that they had to share 25 percent of the slot machine revenues from the three casinos.

The Seneca representative explained that the compact is very explicit when it says that after the fourteenth year they have the right to stop payments, and that the state should’ve seen it coming since it’s been fifteen years. “We’re now in the 15th year of that compact. This is the Nation following the language of the compact.” He also said that even if the revenue share has ended, they remain committed to being good neighbors in the communities where they have gaming facilities and that they’re looking forward to work directly with them to continue the economic progress of Western New York.