New York arbitrators have ruled that the Seneca Nation of Indians must resume paying the state a cut of slots revenue from its three tribal casino operations.

On Tuesday, a three-member arbitration panel voted 2-1 in favor of New York State, ruling that the Senecas were wrong to withhold the state’s 25% share of slots revenue from the tribal casinos in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca.

In April 2017, the Senecas began withholding the payments, which previously amounted to around $110m per year. The Senecas claimed that their gaming compact with the state contained no language compelling the tribe to continue making the payments beyond the length of the compact’s 14-year initial term.

However, many observers suspected that the Senecas were more interested in expressing their displeasure with the state’s 2015 decision to issue new commercial casino licenses, including one to the del Lago Resort & Casino in Seneca county, just outside the Senecas’ “exclusive” casino territory. The del Lago opened two months before the Senecas announced their intention to stop its payments to the state.