Home Catawba Nation announces it has filed for state recognition in North Carolina, with a casino soon to open

Catawba Nation announces it has filed for state recognition in North Carolina, with a casino soon to open

The Catawba Nation Chief, Brian Harris, has taken to social media to share the latest vision for the federally recognized tribe in South Carolina.

Harris starts by sharing the new introductions and improvements before noting that, unlike South Carolina, “believe it or not, we never applied to be state-recognized in North Carolina.”

He continued to say they already have all the paperwork turned in and have done their due diligence, including giving the state everything they need. With this comes the opening of the tribe’s first satellite government office in North Carolina.

The office in this new location aims to facilitate the tribe’s citizens in the state. Later in the video, where Brian Harris is sitting down to provide an insight into the upcoming happenings, he says the tribe will be submitting a number of legislation bills this year.

This includes a bill for North Carolina, as well as another in South Carolina which Harris says the bill would propose “to give us, as the federal government promised us back in the day, a leg up on any other casino coming into the state of South Carolina.” He continued to say that if they don’t, the tribe is going to file federal lawsuits.

Catawba Nation Chief Brian Harris shares insight into casino plans

Also in the speech, Harris explained how a new 80,000 square-foot introductory casino would be opening in February or March time.

It was in June of last year when an update was provided on the $1 billion Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort in Kings Mountain, with significant construction having just been completed.

Aerial view of a large construction site with two multi-story buildings under construction, surrounded by cranes, construction vehicles, and materials. A curved road borders the site in the foreground, with green fields and trees extending into the distance under a partly cloudy sky.
Introductory casino phase to open in spring 2026. Credit: Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort via press release

At the time, they said the introductory casino was planned to open in Spring 2026 and they described the project to be in full swing. However, the main casino complex was said to be opening in 2027, with this being about 2 million square feet.

The casino will include 4,300 slot machines, 100 table games, 11 dining outlets, a players lounge, 11 bars, and a 2,700-space parking garage built under the casino complex, and 800 surface parking spaces.

Featured Image: Screenshot via Facebook video

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Sophie Atkinson
Freelance Journalist

Sophie Atkinson is a UK-based journalist and content writer, as well as a founder of a content agency which focuses on storytelling through social media marketing. She kicked off her career with a Print Futures Award which champions young talent working in print, paper and publishing. Heading straight into a regional newsroom, after graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Journalism, Sophie started by working for Reach PLC. Now, with five years experience in journalism and many more in content marketing, Sophie works as a freelance writer and marketer. Her areas of specialty span a wide range, including technology, business,…