Indian Casinos
A judge ruled Tuesday that a 1993 agreement allows the Catawba Indian tribe to operate video poker on its reservation despite a statewide ban on the practice. But even before the ruling, the tribe's governing body was already looking to trade that right for the ability to operate a gaming facility in Orangeburg County. Judge Joseph Strickland said a portion of the settlement reached between the tribe and state and federal governments includes an exception to the statewide ban that is "contingent upon the game being operated by the Tribe after approval by the governing body of the Tribe." One sentence of the settlement says the tribe may permit video poker on its reservation "to the same extent that the devices are authorized by state law." But the paragraph also says that if the reservation sits in counties that prohibit video poker, "the tribe nonetheless must be permitted to operate the devices on the reservation if the governing body of the tribe so authorizes."
The tribe sued the state in July over the ability to operate video poker on its 760-acre reservation, in York and Lancaster counties. The tribe says profits at its Rock Hill bingo hall dropped by nearly half when South Carolina adopted a statewide lottery in 2002. According to a release, the tribe's executive committee anticipated today's ruling, voting Dec. 6 to delay opening a video poker facility on the reservation "to give the General Assembly an opportunity to enact laws that would allow the Tribe to replace the video poker provision of the settlement with a high-stakes, electronic bingo hall at Santee in Orangeburg County which has a much lower winning odds than the average online roulette casinos odds." In a statement, Attorney General Henry McMaster called the trade-off proposal an "unsavory" tactic. McMaster said he will ask the Legislature "to quickly pass a joint resolution condemning this tactic and stating firm opposition to any and all efforts to reintroduce casino-style electronic gambling in South Carolina."
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