South Carolina Christian Colleges Oppose Casinos While Accepting Lottery Funds

Posted on: April 1, 2025, 10:32h. 

Last updated on: April 1, 2025, 02:44h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
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  • Christian colleges in South Carolina oppose casinos
  • At the same time, many of those schools take money generated by the state-run lottery
  • A bill to allow a casino in Santee remains pending in the Columbia capital

Several South Carolina Christian colleges and universities have spoken publicly against an effort to bring commercial casinos to the state. A report exposes their hypocrisy.

South Carolina Christian colleges lottery casino gambling
Bob Jones University is among the many Christian-based places of higher education in South Carolina that receive state funds generated by the lottery. Bob Jones, however, also opposes the further expansion of gambling regardless of the possible infrastructure benefits a casino might bring to the state. (Image: Bob Jones University)

FITSNews, an online news organization covering politics in South Carolina, reported this week on several Christian-based schools expressing hostility to a legislative push in the Columbia State House to allow a $1 billion casino resort in Santee near Interstate 95.

FITSNews founder Will Folks says the opposition from schools like Bob Jones University, North Greenville University, Anderson University, and Charleston Southern University is two-faced since those higher education institutions have no qualms in taking state revenue generated by the lottery.

The Christian-based colleges have cited scripture in expressing their opposition to House Bill 4176, which would allow for slot machines, table games, and sports betting and set aside the associated tax money from the liberalization of gambling for road construction, maintenance, and repair.

South Carolina Christian Opposition to Casinos

The state-run South Carolina Education Lottery uses its proceeds to support education in the Palmetto State. The lottery money is primarily used for scholarships and grants, with more than $8.8 billion raised and delivered to qualifying schools since the lottery began in 2002.

Folks reports that religious-based colleges have received almost $120 million over the past four fiscal years from lottery gaming.

I am not blaming these institutions for availing themselves of a revenue stream which was created by the state for the expressed purpose of subsidizing higher education. I am, however, calling them hypocrites for quoting scripture in opposition to private-sector gambling at the same time they are fattening their pockets with money from state-sponsored gambling,” Folks wrote.

A spokesperson for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, which is affiliated with Anderson, Charleston Southern, and North Greenville, says sin industries like casinos should stay out of South Carolina.

I Timothy 6:9-10 says, ‘But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs,'” Dr. Tony Beam, a policy consultant with the SCBC, wrote in a March “Action Alert.”

“Gambling is addictive. Clinical research has revealed sound evidence that gambling activates the brain’s reward system in much the same way a drug does,” Beam continued. “Virtue never rises from vice. The addiction, corruption, crime, and human suffering that will accompany casinos far outweigh any supposed financial benefit.”

Gaming Pitch

Well-known South Carolina businessman and real estate developer Wallace Cheves is using his clout in Columbia to get state lawmakers on board for his drive to park a casino destination in Santee. Fresh off severing ties with the Catawba Indian Nation on its tribal casino development in North Carolina, Cheves has proposed redeveloping the shuttered Santee Outlets shopping complex.

The casino resort, Cheves says, would inject an $8 billion economic impact on the South Carolina economy during its first decade in operation. The businessman has pledged to not take “a single dime of local or state” tax money, including through incentives or subsidies.

Filed in March by a bipartisan group of 13 lawmakers, HB4176 remains under consideration by the House Ways and Means Committee.