The South Carolina Supreme Court recently unanimously ruled that the Catawba Indian Nation, the state’s only federally recognized tribe, cannot offer video poker on its York County reservation. The tribe had argued that a state law allowing gambling cruises to leave from South Carolina ports also permitted the 2,800-member tribe to offer the same games at a casino on its reservation.
The decision was in response to the tribe’s appeal of a circuit court judge’s 2012 ruling that the cruise-ship law does not give the Catawbas the right to gamble and that the tribe gave up any gambling rights voluntarily in a 1993 settlement agreement. Under that agreement the tribe dropped a lawsuit over hundreds of square miles of land in exchange for its current reservation and the right to open two bingo halls plus any additional gambling “to the same extent allowed under state law.”
Catawba attorney Billy Wilkins argued that that phrase entitles the tribe to video gambling because state law allows gambling cruise ships. But the justices said, “Contrary to the Tribe’s assertions, the prohibition on video poker is being applied to the Tribe ‘to the same extent’ provided by state law. The ban on video poker devices remains in force throughout the territorial limits of South Carolina, including the State’s territorial waters. Nothing has changed in that regard.”
State law says gambling cannot begin until boats reach international waters and specifically prohibits any casino-style gambling in areas controlled by South Carolina.
Mark Powell, a spokesman for Attorney General Alan Wilson said, “As the court stated, the tribe must be treated as any other citizen for the purposes of video gambling. The decision reaffirms that video gambling is banned in South Carolina without exception.”
The Catawba tribe operated a bingo hall in Rock Hill from 1997 to 2006 but ultimately closed it due to competition from the state lottery. The tribe filed an application with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs last summer to place into trust 16 acres of land near King Mountain, North Carolina, about 30 miles northwest of the tribe’s Rock Hill reservation, for a complex including a 220,000 square foot casino, 1,500 hotel rooms, restaurants and restaurants. Tribal officials said the proposed project would create more than 3,000 permanent positions and hundreds of construction jobs.
