A Democratic lawmaker in South Carolina believes Donald Trump’s election will give him the boost he needs to get casinos legalized in the state.
“(Trump) is well tied-in to gambling,” said Columbia Rep. Todd Rutherford, who has pre-filed a bill to put legalization on the ballot in 2018. “The Republicans are now well tied-in to it all the way to the top. What is wrong with South Carolina benefiting from that tie-in to gambling profits?”
If passed the bill would allow voters to decide whether to amend the state Constitution to authorize Las Vegas-style gambling, which currently is limited to two cruise ships plying international waters three miles offshore. The state does have a lottery.
Rutherford also wants poker and sports betting on the ballot, although the latter would require that Congress change provisions in a 1992 federal law that bans sports wagering except in four states where it was grandfathered in?Nevada, the only state where wagering on individual games is allowed, and Delaware, Montana and Oregon.
Real-money poker has been illegal in South Carolina since 1802, a prohibition the state Supreme Court called “hopelessly outdated” in a 2012 ruling that nonetheless upheld it.
Rutherford introduced a similar measure last year, but it went nowhere.
