The Catawba Indian Nation wants to put up to 1,000 bingo machines in the heart of the state or open a video poker casino in Rock Hill that would dwarf anything South Carolina has seen.

The tribe previously said it wants to open a bingo hall in the Orangeburg County town of Santee with 500 electronic machines.

But Catawba spokesmen said last week the Santee site could have 700 or 1,000 machines, or whatever “the market will allow.”

If state leaders thwart that plan, as some have threatened, the tribe plans to put between 300 and 500 video poker machines on its Rock Hill reservation, Catawba attorney Jay Bender said.

Bender is a Columbia attorney who specializes in media law and First Amendment issues. Among his clients are The State newspaper and the South Carolina Press Association. The State is a member of the press association.

Bender said the tribe much prefers a high-stakes bingo operation in Santee.

Opponents balk at the idea of having so many video bingo machines in Santee. They are equally worried the tribe might introduce video poker on its Rock Hill reservation.

Bingo is legal gambling in South Carolina. Video poker is allowed on the Catawba reservation under a 1993 agreement with the state, the tribe contends.

“I can assure you of one thing,” Bender said. “If the tribe does not get the bingo operation, there is a possibility we’re going to have a resurrection of video poker, on the reservation.”

Bender said the bingo hall could grow to 1,000 machines that would connect players electronically to bingo games on Indian reservations across the nation. Catawba spokesman Jason Snyder said the hall “will grow as large as the market will allow.”

Bender would not put a cap on the number of video poker machines in Rock Hill. He said the tribe would consider 300 to 500 poker machines, or “as many as we can get on the reservation.”

Police and prosecutors are gearing up to fight the Catawbas’ video poker plans, S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster said. They contend the S.C. ban on video poker in July 2000 applies to the reservation.

Bender said the tribe has had the legal right since 1993 to have video poker on the reservation but has not exercised it.

Instead, the Catawbas chose to open a 300- to 500-machine, low-stakes bingo hall in Rock Hill.

Catawbas complain that the state has drained their bingo income by starting a state-run lottery in 2002.

The tribe’s nearly $2 million in bingo profits in 2001 dropped 54 percent in 2002, to $911,897, according to the tribe’s accountant. This year’s profits are expected to dip to about $850,000.

“The tribe is not going to sit back and let its economic future be destroyed,” Bender said.

Opponents worry the Catawbas’ plan — as well as legal inroads being made in the state by a video game known as Chess Challenge II — might trigger an explosion in video gaming.

“It might be too early to say which one is the most threatening,” said Sen. Wes Hayes, R-York, long a gambling opponent.

Bender said critics are trying to hurt the Catawbas’ bingo plans by raising the specter of widespread video poker.

Joe Mack of the S.C. Baptist Convention, the state’s largest religious denomination, dislikes the idea of concentrating machines in any one place.

“If that bingo parlor goes in Santee, that would be a huge expansion of gambling ... like we’ve never seen,” Mack said.

Gov. Mark Sanford’s opposition has stalled congressional approval of the Santee plans.