Like gaming destinations everywhere, Deadwood, South Dakota suffered in 2020. But hope springs eternal for 2021. South Dakota voters said yes to sports betting in November and the legislature is crafting a bill to implement wagering, starting in Deadwood, according to KOTA-TV. The reason for the push can be explained in Iowa, where bettors wagered more than $100 million in December alone.
”We think that the approach of the administration is to kind of take it slow,” said Mike Rodman, Deadwood Gaming Association’s executive director. “Make sure that we can properly implement sports wagering and that they can properly regulate it before we expand it elsewhere.”
Still, Rodman anticipates the first bets will be taken by July 1, in the heat of major league baseball’s season.
The promise of sports betting is a key reason casinos in Deadwood have a positive outlook for 2021. The coronavirus pandemic took a bite out of gambling and tourism in the historic town and like gaming locales elsewhere, Deadwood casinos took steps to keep the pandemic at bay.
“We’ve been ensuring that things are sanitized. We have a great crew that has been keeping up with all the sanitation on the machines as well as all of our general surfaces and stuff like that. It’s just become second nature to make sure that everything is clean and ready to go for our customers,” Eli Corbett, of Tin Lizzie, said.
Gaming figures tumbled from the start of the pandemic in March, but Rodman said the numbers have improved in the past few months, according to KELO.
“Overall, we’ve made a big comeback from where were earlier in the year and so we are very pleased with where we are at,” Rodman said.
Rodman expects a decline over the winter, but should improve a lot once spring arrives.
Tin Lizzie expects to be ready for sports betting.
“We have an entire room dedicated to sports betting that’s going to start in July so we are looking at a renovation for that as well as a 109-room hotel expansion so a lot of big things are coming to Tin Lizzie for sure,” Corbett said.
