The Seneca Nation announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement in principle with New York State for a new 20-year casino gaming compact. The agreement follows several months of negotiations. The current gaming compact, signed in August 2002, is set to expire on December 9th.
Seneca Nation President Rickey Armstrong, Sr. says, "Negotiating a fair Compact was critical to the future of the Seneca Nation and the future of Western New York. Throughout months of negotiation, our focus remained on arriving at a fair deal that secured the future of our gaming operations, the vital funding our operations provide for critical services for our people, and the significant jobs and economic benefits they generate in Western New York. We made it clear that we would not settle for anything less." Armstrong added, "Now that we have reached a point of agreement with the state's negotiators on a framework that we believe is fair, we hope to move as quickly as possible toward finalizing the terms and securing all necessary approvals to enact what we believe will be another historic agreement that builds upon what we have accomplished over the past two decades."
Representatives from the Seneca Nation and New York State will work to finalize terms of the new compact, which must be approved by a referendum vote of the Seneca people and must also be reviewed and approved by the U.S. Department of Interior before it can go into effect.
Photo by the Seneca Nation
