With the
General Assembly set to reconvene today in Columbia, area
legislators have renewed vows to fight any attempt to bring
video poker back to South Carolina.
That means they may have to deal with the Catawba Indian
Nation's position that it has the legal right to bring video
poker to its reservation, even as others around the state have
balked.
Video poker became illegal in South Carolina in 2000, but
Charleston Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, has proposed
allowing dockside gambling and a return of legalized video
poker to make money for cash-strapped state programs. Sen. Wes
Hayes, R-Rock Hill, Rep. Greg Delleney, R-Chester, and Rep.
Herb Kirsh, D-Clover, all said they will fight the bill.
"No way do I want video poker back, and I can tell you the
people of my district don't want it either," Kirsh said.
Ford's proposition "has no traction in the House" Delleney
said, and Hayes said he doesn't see the bill making any hay in
the Senate either.
The York County-based Catawbas want the U.S. Con-gress to
put the tribe under federal gaming guidelines for a proposed
bingo operation in Santee. The tribe has been unable to get
legislation passed in Washington and faces state opposition
from Gov. Mark Sanford and others.
If federal oversight for Santee can't be worked out --
which the tribe has said for months is its first and best
option -- the tribe can legally bring video poker to the
reservation, said tribal lawyer Jay Bender. Although York
County legislators have voiced opposition, local and state
officials in Santee and Orangeburg County continue to push for
the Santee site, Bender said.
Discussions will continue to seek a state solution, Bender
said, but nothing can be finalized without an agreement
between Congress and the tribe.
"If we can get it worked out, great," Bender said. "If not,
we'll have a video poker casino on the reservation and see
what happens."
Reps. Becky Richardson, R-Fort Mill, Gary Simrill, R-Rock
Hill, and some area religious groups have also vowed to fight
any video poker option broached by the Catawbas or anybody
else.
"Whether this is fought out on the federal or state level
or in the courts, I don't know," Hayes said.
The tribe is recognized by the United States as a limited
sovereign Indian nation under a 1993 state and federal
settlement. The settlement stopped legal filings that could
have brought as many as 60,000 landowners in York, Chester and
Lancaster counties into a court fight over compensation for
144,000 acres of Indian land taken in the 1840 Treaty of
Nation Ford.
The settlement also granted the tribe special licenses to
operate two bingo parlors, one of which must be in the
boundaries of the original land claim. The Catawbas opened
their Cherry Road bingo parlor in 1997.
Contact Andrew Dys at 329-4065 or mailto:adys@heraldonline.com
