The South Carolina Supreme Court recently heard arguments from attorneys for the state and the Catawba Indian Nation, regarding whether the South Carolina Gambling Cruise Act allows the tribe to open a casino on its York County reservation. Gambling is not allowed in the state but the act allows gambling cruises, featuring electronic video gambling machines, departing from the coast.
Attorney William Wilkins, representing the Catawba tribe, said the act and the state’s 1993 settlement with the tribe give the Catawbas the right to offer gambling on their reservation. The 1993 settlement gave the tribe 144,000 acres in northern South Carolina and allowed it to operate two bingo halls including one in York County. The tribe’s Rock Hill bingo parlor closed in 2006.
Assistant Deputy Attorney General C. Havird Jones, representing the state, focused on the phrase “to the same extent,” included in a previous settlement agreement between the tribe and the state. Jones said the phrase should be read as “authorized by the state legislature.”
The state Supreme Court appeal stems from an April 2012 state court ruling against the Catawbas. Meanwhile, another lawsuit is working its way through the courts, in which the tribe is seeking to have land placed in federal trust in Cleveland County, North Carolina, where they hope to build a casino that would create 5,000 jobs.
