COLUMBIA - A bill allowing local governments to ban or regulate casino boats failed to pass Thursday, thus missing the deadline for passage this year, but supporters say it still has a chance.

Georgetown County tried to block a casino boat from docking in Murrells Inlet, but the courts said the power to regulate gambling falls to the state. In South Carolina, only Little River has gambling cruises. The law would leave the decision to allow casino boats with local officials.

Both the Senate and the House have the bills. The Senate bill was under debate when Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, who is a fan of the casino boats, took the floor about noon and indicated he wanted to talk a few hours.

Senators said they were tired from four days of heavy work and decided to adjourn instead.

The House has the same bill on its agenda but did not get to it for debate this week. Both houses were pushing against the May 1 deadline to pass bills and send them across the hall.

The bill's chances for passage this year lie with a rule that allows the House and Senate to take a late bill with a two-thirds majority vote. Supporters in both houses think they could pass the bill that way.

"If the House sends us a bill, we got the numbers," said Sen. Dick Elliott, D-North Myrtle Beach. Three or four senators oppose the bill.

Rep. Vida Miller, D-Pawleys Island, said a solid majority of the House supports the bill. A ban on the boats has passed in the House three times by a wide margin.

She says that if the Senate sends its bill over, she thinks the House will take it.

"I guess that's the battle now," she said.

Miller sponsored the bill in the House because a prospective casino boat operator sued Georgetown County over its ban on the vessels and won a ruling saying local governments do not have the power to regulate casino boats.

The county appealed, but a decision from a higher court could take months.

Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, said he was disappointed but that if the Senate passes its bill next week and the House will not accept it, "it'll be the first thing the House does next year."

Cleary, a freshman senator and co-sponsor of the Senate's casino-boat bill, took the floor Wednesday for the first time in support of the bill. On Thursday, he got up again to apologize for failing to answer questions after he spoke Wednesday.

"It was very emotional for me," Cleary told Senate members, and he was afraid he would say the wrong thing if he answered questions, he said.

The bill became entangled in the debate about whether the Catawba Indian tribe should be allowed to open a bingo parlor in Orangeburg County.

Sen. John Matthews, D-
Bowman, wanted to know why bingo is different from casino-boat gambling and how some counties can be treated differently from others.

Sen. John Hayes, R-Rock Hill, said there is "very little difference" in types of gambling.

"But what you're planning to do in Orangeburg is not bingo; it's a major departure from what we have in South Carolina," Hayes said. The Catawbas proposed to bring a high-stakes video-bingo parlor to the Santee community of Orangeburg that would be connected with other bingo games across the country.

Hayes, who blocked the plan last year, said no one would object if the Catawbas wanted another bingo parlor like the one they have in Rock Hill. The Catawbas said last year that without revenue from high-stakes bingo, the second parlor would not be profitable.

Shortly after noon, Ford rose to speak in favor of the casino boats. He said he cruises on them about three times a month. The boats bring jobs to the community and the guests are good people who do not make trouble, he said.

When Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, asked how long he intended to speak, Ford said five to six hours. Thomas then moved to adjourn, which was agreed to.

That means the bill has precedence when the Senate convenes Tuesday.