Betting on Santee

In the 18th century, the land known today as Orangeburg County attracted settlers because of its fertile soil and abundant wildlife. Additionally, according to carolana.com, the Edisto River “provided an outlet to the port of Charles Towne for agriculture and lumber products.” The region “soon became a well-established and successful colony, composed chiefly of small farmers.”

Carolana added that by the 19th century, large cotton plantations cropped up across Orangeburg County. The harvest contributed so much to the area’s wealth that in 1840, the county opened the first railroad junction in the State. In the long run, however, that economy was not sustainable. As Carolana explained, “Union troops under General Sherman passed through Orangeburg in February of 1865 and burned cotton warehouses, the courthouse and the jail.” 

In the decades since, Lady Luck has not smiled with favor upon the rural area, with much larger Charleston so nearby, and serving as a hub. As recently as 2021, the Department of Numbers confirmed that Orangeburg County’s median household income was $34,685. Further, according to datacommons.org, in 2023, Orangeburg ranked fourth out of the state’s 46 counties for the highest unemployment rate. The economically challenged area could certainly use a hand-up. 

The grapevine says help may soon be on the way.

In March 2025, state lawmakers introduced the bipartisan I-95 Economic and Education Stimulus Act suggesting the development of a casino in the city of Santee, population 1,000, which is located in Orangeburg County. Although current South Carolina legislation does not allow gambling or sports betting, the regulation could be approved since the project would be fully funded by private investors, according to Kimsey Hollifield, owner and founder of Hollifield Financial Group and member of Leadership Dorchester, with which he recently travelled to the capital and learned more on the project. 

Greenville-based developer Wallace Cheves explained, “We strongly believe that this investment should be driven by private enterprise, not taxpayer dollars, ensuring no financial risk to the public sector.” He anticipated that the project would create “thousands of good-paying jobs, driving tourism and expanding business opportunities for local communities.”

Cardplayer.com estimated those new jobs would welcome 4,600 employees and that the casino would contribute $58 million in annual tax revenue from what Hollifield projected would be $8 billion in earnings over the next eight to 10 years. 

These numbers are significant to the distressed economy of Orangeburg County, which presently qualifies as a tier-IV county. According to The State of South Carolina’s 2023 Recovery Plan Performance Report, “Counties ranked in tiers III and IV have higher unemployment rates and lower per-capita income. Therefore, businesses in these counties are eligible for tax credits to help stimulate local economies and create jobs.” 

If the regulation passes, the billion-dollar resort will include the full casino along with restaurants, retail shops and a hotel and spa. All will be built on the site of the old Santee Outlet Mall, which has been abandoned for over a decade. Chevez’s company, the Santee Development Corporation, already owns the property, according to David Hucks reporting for Myrtle Beach SC News. Hollifield speculated that because of its convenient proximity to I-95, the location will attract some four million annual travelers from around the state and elsewhere. This offers not only a new place for Charlestonians to support for weekend getaways, but yet another source of tourism ready to spill over into the Tri-County area.

When it comes to betting on Santee, it seems the odds are stacked in Chevez’s favor. In an article for the “Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis,” editor Glen Sparks unknowingly forecasted this prediction. In Jan. 2007 he wrote about developers who invested in a similar experiment in rural Tunica County, Mississippi, where for decades, residents relied on the cotton industry for employment. Jobs were scarce. Sparks reported, “By 1991, the county experienced the highest unemployment rate in the state at 15.7 %. In 1992, only 2,000 people in Tunica County had jobs, earning an average annual salary of about $12,700.”

When the first casino opened that same year, fate took a turn for Tunica County residents. Sparks informed readers that between 1992 and 2007, “The county has allocated more than $100 million to road construction and improvement, $40.8 million to school improvements, $28.2 million to water and sewer upgrades, $13.2 million to police and fire protection and $5 million to housing rehabilitation and support services for the elderly and disabled. Now, about 12 million people try their luck every year at casinos here, making Tunica the largest casino market in the Eighth District and the fifth largest in the United States according to the American Gaming Association.”

The Tunica casino industry employs about 15,000 workers. Unemployment is about one-half what it was in the pre-casino days. Through the first 10 months of 2006, the 26 casinos in Mississippi had generated almost $245 million in tax revenue for state and local governments. Tunica gaming revenue is subject to a 12% tax: 8% from the state and 4% from Tunica County.” 

In just 15 years, the residents of Tunica transformed a depressed, impoverished tumble-weeds mindset into a collective wealth-building mentality and lifestyle. If and when Orangeburg County experiences even a fraction of that kind of growth, the same knock-on effect that happened in Tunica would, in theory, repeat the cycle. More retail stores, restaurants and hotels will move into the area, along with the potential for manufacturing jobs and industrial development, all of which will require more housing and thus even more job opportunities.

While the idea of building the casino in Orangeburg County garners hope for many residents who have dreamed of the chance to build a better life, some skeptics remain closed to the idea. 

Yet Tom Garrett, assistant vice president and economist in the Research Division at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, put the controversy into perspective by pointing to past experiments such as Tunica. “There’s a feeling among some critics that if you make gambling legal, the entire town will go to ruin. That just isn’t the case,” he said.

Time will tell how this development affects neighboring Orangeburg County and the Greater Lowcountry. In the meantime, residents in Coastal South Carolina should be ready to keep a close eye on these changes how it intends to impact our area and South Carolina as a whole.