The Catawba Indian Nation — which is still seeking authority to open a high-stakes bingo operation in Santee — is preparing to file a lawsuit against the state of South Carolina.

"It's imminent," said Jay Bender of Columbia, a lawyer for the tribe.

The Catawbas will argue that the state has unilaterally changed the 1993 settlement of a land claim that gave the tribe the right to operate two bingo operations in South Carolina, Bender said in an interview.

One of those bingo halls must be within the boundaries of the original land claim in the Rock Hill area. That facility opened in 1997, but has become far less lucrative in recent years, Bender said.

One reason is the education lottery. The state has superseded the Catawbas as the preeminent purveyor of games of chance.

Another reason is the $18 fee that the tribe must charge all bingo customers just to walk in the door. The state requires the fee, which cannot be reduced, tiered or waived.

The tribe never agreed to that, Bender said.

Nor did it ever agree to the state requirement that the bingo operation, which pays taxes based on gross receipts, must print face values on the bingo cards, Bender said.

"It's another example of how the state disregards the sovereign authority of this Indian tribe," Bender said. The 1993 settlement recognizes the Catawbas as a limited sovereign Indian nation. A year and a half of negotiations with the South Carolina Department of Revenue failed to settle the matter, Bender said, so the lawsuit will be filed within days in state court in Richland County.

The tribe also will ask the court to acknowledge its right to offer video gambling on its York County reservation — a claim that the tribe had pressed in a federal lawsuit filed last year.

State Attorney General Henry McMaster had obtained the court's permission to join that case as a defendant. He then asked the judge to dismiss it on the ground there was no federal issue at stake.

U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the lawsuit on Jan. 25, saying the Catawbas first needed to resolve an internal struggle for tribal leadership.

Bender said in March that "the tribe voluntarily withdrew the suit" while keeping the option of refiling it.

But instead of returning to federal court, the tribe will go to state court in Richland County, Bender said. "The state asked to be sued in state courts and we said, 'Sure.'"

In a letter dated Monday, Assistant Chief Evans "Buck" George wrote that the tribe "has not wanted to see the return of video poker to South Carolina."

But the traditional low-stakes, low-tech bingo hall in Rock Hill isn't generating enough revenues to "provide for the health, social services, cultural preservation and financial needs of its people," George wrote.

"Auditors for the tribe have demonstrated that the (Catawba Indian) Nation lost 60 percent of revenue from our Rock Hill bingo facility during the first year of the lottery. Revenue declined another 40 percent the following year and continues to move in a downward trend."

So tribal officials want to operate electronic "start-of-the-art bingo games that almost all of the country's other federally recognized tribes can offer," George said.

They want to operate around the clock and electronically link players in multiple states to offer bigger jackpots.

And they want to do it in Santee — on Interstate 95, the main highway between New York and Miami.

The proposal has gained "extraordinary support" in Orangeburg County, George said, referring to public officials who believe it would benefit the area's economy.

Opponents fear it could ruin locally owned businesses, prey on local residents' finances, raise the crime rate and erode morals. So far they've prevailed in the state Legislature.

George wrote that as long as "continued attempts to open a ... facility in Santee are thwarted in the General Assembly," the tribal leadership sees video poker as the only "economic opportunity to support the tribe and its programs."

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