Did the SC’s casino plans go bust? Here’s what the House did with the proposal
Dreams of allowing casino gambling in South Carolina may have been shelved for the rest of the year.
House members sent a bill allowing for a casino to built in the state back to the House Ways and Means Committee, potentially killing the legislation before it could get a vote on the House floor.
But odds of a casino being allowed in the state still were a long shot even if it had made it out of the House.
State Senate leadership showed little to no interest in allowing gambling in the state beyond the state lottery. Gov. Henry McMaster also is an opponent of allowing gambling.
Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, planned to offer an amendment to mandate 35% of the revenue from a casino to go toward conservation efforts, which are popular among South Carolina decision-makers.
“One of the things that was anticipated was that the governor may be moderating his resistance to the bill. He has come out and said that he would veto it under its current form, even with the amendment that we talked about,” Bannister said in an interview.
House members sent the bill back to Ways and Means to potentially find a way to make the legislation more acceptable to the governor.
Bannister said he doesn’t know if the legislation is essentially dead, but “if the governor’s position doesn’t change, that bill will not move to the Senate.”
A developer wanted to build a casino in Orangeburg County along Interstate 95 near Lake Marion. The casino and resort is estimated to generate $100 million in tax revenue for the state.
McMaster, while speaking to reporters, recently said he still was against casino gambling despite proposals to use tax revenue for conservation efforts.
“I’ve always opposed gambling as a means to raise revenue like this, starting back with Carroll Campbell, when we really got moving on a lot of things, that has been the state’s position all along,” McMaster said. “I think the majority of the people in the state do not want the casino gambling, and I don’t either.”
Ahead of the beginning of session this year, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, expressed doubt allowing casino gambling would move in the upper chamber.
“There’s been considerable opposition to gambling in the Senate for a number of years,” Massey said. “We’ve had considerable opposition over here even to wagering on horse racing, whereas the house has kind of sailed through over there.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 2:56 PM.
