As reported by: The Charlotte Observer
Four years after unplugging the last video poker machine, S.C. lawmakers are trying to decide whether to let high-stakes electronic gambling back into the state.

The Catawba Indian Nation says a 24-hour video bingo parlor near Santee, S.C., would lure travelers off Interstate 95 to Orangeburg County, an area that badly needs the business.

"It's still bingo," says Catawba lawyer Jay Bender. But opponents call it something else: "They plan to put a casino down there," says state Sen. Wes Hayes, R-Rock Hill.

Where project supporters see profit and prosperity, opponents see crime and addiction.

Where tribal leaders tout jobs, critics warn of poor South Carolinians squandering savings.

S.C. lawmakers are sorting through a tangle of claims as the York County tribe pushes them to pass a bill allowing the parlor before the legislature adjourns June 3. For one, the bill's estimates for 1,100 new jobs include workers at both the bingo hall and nearby tourist-oriented businesses, though a congressional study has said casinos don't always create windfalls for local proprietors.

And South Carolina wouldn't get a cut of the lucrative bingo proceeds, unlike other states with off-reservation gambling operations.

Six games in a minute

The Santee parlor would be the only place to play video bingo in the state. It would replace the traditional bingo cards and callers with video screens and high-tech software.Santee machines could be linked to others across the country, allowing for higher payouts. Players would sit at hundreds of machines 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Six games could be played in a minute.

The hall would be built in a struggling retail mall that could initially house 750 machines, but that number could grow to 1,200, Bender said.

The Catawbas chose Santee, an area between Columbia and Charleston that has wrestled with poverty for years, because it's near Interstates 95 and 26.

Tens of thousands of cars pass by each day, and hotels there already target travelers making overnight stops between New York and Miami. Bingo supporters hope to cash in on that traffic.

"It's going to draw people from all over," said Robert Gips, a Portland, Maine, attorney representing the Catawbas.

Critics -- who include the S.C. Baptist Convention -- say video bingo is too much like video poker, and both are nothing but money-gobbling slot machines in disguise.

No gambling tax

The tribe wouldn't share any of its gaming proceeds with the state under the proposed bill -- unlike at its traditional bingo hall in Rock Hill, where it pays the state 10 percent.

Other states pocket as much as 70 percent of gaming revenue. Illinois levies the highest tax -- 70 percent -- on riverboat gambling proceeds in the top bracket; Nevada takes 6.75 percent of revenues, said gaming expert Bill Thompson, a professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

He said South Carolina could tax the Santee parlor because it would not be on reservation land. Most states charge under 30 percent, he added.

"You can pick out any standard you want," he said. A 750-machine hall could gross as much as $50 million a year, just from gambling, he said.

Gips, who also helped lead the Mashantucket Pequot's successful fight to open Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, said neither the tribe nor state officials have mentioned taxing revenue.

"I'm not aware that anybody in the state has raised that this is a condition," he said. "People that are opposed to it don't seem interested in revenues."

Supporters say the state would take in about $5 million in new revenue from other types of state and local taxes associated with the project, including income and property taxes.

Up to 1,100 jobs

Those who welcome the tribe to the Santee area cite the project's potential to bring paychecks to low-skilled workers who desperately need them."The No. 1 thing is jobs," said state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, the county where Santee is located. In April, 9.2 percent of the county's work force was unemployed -- more than a third above the state average.

The estimate of 1,100 new jobs comes from a study commissioned by economic development officials and funded in part by the tribe. The legislation cites that number, too.

But it includes theoretical off-site jobs, not just jobs at the bingo hall and an accompanying resort.

Donald Schunk, the University of South Carolina economist who did the study, said projections for the actual bingo complex were closer to 600-700 jobs.

Hutto said that, even if the estimates turn out high, the project could still bring some benefits at no cost to the state. "If they're completely wrong, we haven't lost anything," he said.

Boost? Yes. Cure-all? No.

Many communities across the country -- especially those that were depressed beforehand -- have reported economic boosts from new casinos. But some say it's no cure-all, according to a 1999 report that a study commission made to Congress.

In Connecticut, Foxwoods turns over 25 percent of slot machine revenues to the state -- which translates into hundreds of millions of dollars each year. But officials say casino gambling also has been costly for the town of Ledyard which borders the Mashantucket Pequot reservation.

In 2001, the small town tucked away in the Connecticut woods needed to hike its budget by more than a fifth -- or $2.2 million -- to cover casino-related costs such as more law enforcement, road work and litigation. The town received less than $700,000 from the state in slot revenues that year.

And most businesses haven't seen a windfall because tourists aren't interested in anything but Foxwoods, said Mark Bancroft, an assistant to the mayor there.

"It's a Point A to Point B type thing," he said.

Hutto said visitors to the Santee parlor would be different -- they'd be interstate travelers going at a more leisurely pace. Because of that, they would be more likely to stay an extra day and spend money in local hotels and restaurants, he said.

They'd be less likely to burden roads, too, because the bingo parlor would be a few hundred yards from the highway, he added.

Causing addictions

Central to critics' opposition to the Santee project is a belief that the bingo parlor will cause more people to develop gambling addictions."There were so many horror stories from the video poker days," said Will Folks, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, who opposes the Catawbas' plan.

No study has determined whether bingo played on video monitors is more addictive than bingo played on cards, two researchers said. But Rhode Island psychologist and gambling counselor Henry Lesieur said some research supports the idea that faster games get gamblers into trouble more quickly.

"If you increase the rate of play, you increase the addiction potential," he said. One percent to 3 percent of the population is estimated to have a gambling problem, said Christine Reilly, executive director for Harvard Medical School's Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders.

The tribe says it's not looking to open a full-scale casino with table games at the Santee site. Yet some officials worry video bingo would be only a first step.

The tribe ratcheted up pressure on S.C. lawmakers earlier this month by filing a federal lawsuit that seeks to force York County to allow video poker on Catawba land near Interstate 77 outside Rock Hill.

Catawba leaders say they will drop plans for the 1,000-machine video poker palace if they get Santee bingo, which is what they really want.

Bender said Catawba leaders are only looking for more money for health care, education and recreation. But neither he, nor they, are using the word "casino."

"I don't want to get all these self-appointed moral guardians excited," Bender said.

About the Tribe

The Catawba tribe has roughly 2,500 members, all descended from members listed on a 1942 census. The tribe once roamed across both Carolinas, West Virginia and Georgia. It's known for pottery made with mica-rich clay found along the Catawba River flood plain, which gives finished pieces unusual earth tones.

The tribe was first officially recognized in 1993 when it signed an agreement with the state and federal governments. The agreement settled the tribe's claim to 144,000 acres in York, Chester and Lancaster counties. It awarded the tribe $50 million and the right to open two traditional bingo parlors. By signing the agreement, the tribe gave up its right to casino gaming.

The agreement also established the Catawbas' reservation southeast of Rock Hill. The Catawbas opened a traditional bingo parlor on Rock Hill's Cherry Road in 1997.

The tribe says the state breached the agreement in 2002 when it started up the lottery, which the Catawbas say cut into profits at the Rock Hill bingo hall. The tribe argues that's why the state should allow the Santee video bingo hall.