South Dakota’s Rules Review Committee recently approved regulations requiring Deadwood casinos to prove to the state Commission on Gaming that they have established processes to monitor illegal activity and prevent problem gamblers from betting.
State Senator Jean Hunhoff questioned commission attorney Doug Abraham about a regulation requiring casinos to have a plan for self-exclusion. She asked, “Why is this rule in there? Has something happened? What led to that?” Abraham replied, “A lot of other areas have similar situations. I’m not aware of an area in Deadwood that had this.”
Commission Deputy Executive Secretary Mark Heltzel added self-exclusion is offered at casinos nationwide. “We just followed suit and tried to offer that to our customers. We never had a specific incident where we felt we needed to raise that concern,” Heltzel said.
The regulation requires each casino’s plan to be approved by Commission Executive Secretary Susan Christian. In addition, each casino must submit a monthly report to Christian regarding gamblers who have voluntarily excluded themselves.
New “patron protection” regulations list the requirements each casino must follow, including ways for patrons to detect unauthorized use of their accounts and methods for settling disputes between patrons and casinos.
The regulations also require casinos to “promptly notify” the commission if any individual is caught or reasonably suspected of misrepresenting their identity or using false identity in an attempt to open or access a patron account. Casinos also must report any criminal or disciplinary proceedings initiated against them over sports wagering operations. Some Deadwood casinos have been charged with violations since sports wagering began last fall.
