Griffo, Buttenschon and Hunter: Excluding Central New York from mobile sports betting could result in breach of settlement and could put $70 million state receives annually at risk

New York State Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-I-C-Rome, and state Assembly members Marianne Buttenschon, D-Marcy, and Pamela Hunter, D-Syracuse, released the following statement today regarding a mobile sports provision that could be included in the upcoming state budget:

“Under the Oneida Indian Nation’s settlement agreement with New York, the Nation has made settlement payments of nearly $70 million annually to the state – more than $400 million in total since 2014. The 10-county region encompassing the Nation's exclusivity zone receives a significant percentage of that money. Were the state to not include the Oneida Indian Nation in a final compromise on the legalization of mobile sports betting, they would not only be excluding the residents of this 10-county region from participating in this activity but also potentially putting itself into a breach of the settlement with the Nation. This would result in the unnecessary loss of tens of millions of dollars for local communities and the state.

Simply put, cutting out major parts of Upstate New York from participating in mobile betting and threatening millions of dollars to our counties is terrible public policy and could easily be avoided. New York State must not put our communities at financial risk by excluding Central New York from mobile gaming.” 

The Oneida Indian Nation’s 10 county exclusivity zone includes the following counties: Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego and Otsego.