The State – How the S.C. Supreme Court interprets the phrase “to the same extent” may determine whether the Catawba Indian Nation can open a casino at its York County reservation. Attorneys for the tribe and the state argued before South Carolina’s highest court Wednesday on whether the state’s Gambling Cruise Act, which allows video gambling cruises from the coast, applies to the Catawbas.

Williams Wilkins, an attorney representing the Catawba Indian Nation, said the gambling cruise act and the state’s 1993 settlement with the tribe, when considered together, give the Catawbas the right to have gambling on their reservation. Assistant Deputy Attorney General C. Havird Jones, representing the state, said the phrase “to the same extent” means “authorized by the state Legislature.”

Justice Donald W. Beatty quickly focused on 2007 state Supreme Court decision that found the Catawbas could not operate video poker on their reservation. Beatty interrupted Wilkins just seconds into his presentation, asking what was different this time. “How does the old court decision control this case?” he asked.

Wilkins said this case is not about the video poker ban, but whether gambling permitted through the Gambling Cruise Act is extended to the Catawbas through a clause in the 1993 settlement which reads the tribe may permit on its reservation “video poker or similar electronic play devices to the same extent that the devices are authorized by state law.”

The state’s Gambling Cruise Act allows gambling and that means it is allowed on the reservation, Wilkins said. He noted that the 1993 settlement between the state and the Catawbas “has no geographic component.”

Wilkins added if there is an ambiguity between the Gambling Cruise Act and the settlement, the application of the law is clear. Courts have constantly ruled “liberally in favor of Native Americans,” he said.