The Catawba Indian tribe can operate video poker on its reservation near Rock Hill, a judge ruled Tuesday, though the tribe says it still prefers a high-stakes bingo hall in Orangeburg County.

A 1993 settlement between the state and the tribe allows video poker on reservation land despite a statewide ban on the games since 2000, Richland County Master-In-Equity Joseph Strickland ruled.

Strickland’s 12-page ruling will be appealed, the state attorney general said Tuesday.

The federally recognized tribe has threatened to open a video poker operation if the state doesn’t let it operate a bingo hall in Santee off I-95.

That operation would be linked electronically with other tribes’ games and offer jackpots of more than $100,000. The tribe’s bingo hall in Rock Hill can offer jackpots of no more than $100,000 under the 1993 agreement.

The tribe says it needs high-stakes bingo because the state-run lottery, which began in 2002, has reduced revenue at its existing bingo hall.

“The lottery has killed Catawba bingo,” said Jay Bender, the Catawbas’ attorney. He said the tribe has lost more than $10 million in net income.

Bender said the tribe has no immediate plans for video poker on the reservation.

Whether that happens will depend on the General Assembly “making a good-faith effort” to resolve the Santee bingo hall dispute, he said.

State Attorney General Henry McMaster described the tribe’s position as “an unsavory tactic.”

“By their own admission, the Catawbas are using Judge Strickland’s order and the threat of video poker as leverage to force the people of South Carolina, through their General Assembly, into authorizing the tribe’s operation of an electronic bingo casino in Santee.”

McMaster asked the General Assembly, which convenes next month, to pass a joint resolution “stating firm opposition to any and all efforts to reintroduce casino-style electronic gambling in South Carolina.”

Gov. Mark Sanford’s spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said the governor “will work with the attorney general’s office in terms of whatever legal action needs to be taken.”

“We just got done fighting for 10 years to get rid of video gambling, and they want to put it back in,” said state Sen. Wes Hayes, R-York. “I think the York County delegation will be unanimous in saying we will not give in to this threat.”

Hayes, a member of a state committee that negotiated the 1993 settlement, said the Santee bingo hall could have as many as “1,000 video bingo machines.” He said that would be “bigger than anything we’ve ever seen in South Carolina.”

But state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said the Santee hall could bring at least 1,000 jobs to an economically depressed area.

“I think some folks see this as a moral issue, ... but I see this, and most of the folks in Orangeburg County see this, as a huge tourism issue,” Hutto said. “If we could create a tourism Mecca in Santee, it would be wonderful for the people of Orangeburg County and the state of South Carolina.”

In his ruling, Strickland said he was persuaded by the affidavit of A. Crawford Clarkson Jr., designated the state’s chief negotiator by then-Gov. Carroll Campbell.

The affidavit said the tribe was promised “the right to operate video poker machines and similar electronic devices on the reservation irrespective of whether such machines were illegal elsewhere in South Carolina.”

Hayes, who submitted an affidavit on behalf of the state, said he disagreed with that interpretation.

Bender said state and local government officials have “failed to recognize” the Catawbas as a “government that has the authority and power over its reservation, and that includes the power to regulate gaming.”

Bender said that in a 2004 legal opinion, McMaster acknowledged the Catawbas “have a serious claim.” Tuesday’s ruling also is consistent with legal opinions prepared for state Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, and the South Carolina Policy Council, he said.

Bender is a Columbia attorney specializing 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.

Besides ruling on the video poker question, Strickland also said the state violated the 1993 settlement by requiring the tribe to charge an $18 entry fee at its Rock Hill bingo hall and changing the taxation formula for bingo.

The Charlotte Observer contributed to this story. Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com.