Posted on: July 24, 2024, 09:59h.
Last updated on: July 24, 2024, 10:14h.
Deadwood, SD casinos fared better through the first six months of 2024 than they did a year ago.
The South Dakota Department of Revenue reveals that Deadwood’s 23 licensed gaming facilities combined to win $71.8 million off gamblers from January through June 2024. The gross gaming revenue (GGR) comes from commercial slot machines, table games, and sports betting in the historic Gold Rush town.
At this time last year, Deadwood’s gross gaming revenue totaled approximately $69.8 million, meaning casino win is up nearly 3% this year.
Players in Deadwood risked nearly $750 million on gambling activities. Slots accounted for the bulk of the handle at nearly $700 million. Table game bets totaled nearly $44 million and oddsmakers took about $4.3 million in sports bets.
The $748.3 million bet represented a 1.5% premium from the first six months of 2023.
Slots and Tables Grow
Deadwood’s historic Main Street and its many gaming hotels and restaurants reported increased revenue from slots.
The terminals kept $63.4 million of players’ slot money this year, a 2.9% year-over-year bump. Table games also fared better, as felt revenue climbed more than 5% from $7.7 million to $8.2 million.
Though far less important to the overall health of the Deadwood gaming industry, oddsmakers haven’t fared as well this year as they did in 2023.
Despite oddsmakers taking 15% more money in 2024 bets, their hold rate has declined steeply from last year. That pushed gross sports betting revenue down substantially from $403,371 through six months in 2023 to just $208K. Sports betting is only permitted in person.
Oddsmakers lost to bettors in February and April. The books reported losing $38,405 to bettors in February because of a disappointing Super Bowl in which the heavily favored Kansas City Chiefs won 25-22 in overtime against the San Francisco 49ers. Deadwood sportsbooks lost $110,601 on the NFL title game.
Deadwood casinos share 9% of their adjusted gross revenue — the amount won after promotional deductions, the “wide area” progressive slot deduction, and the federal excise tax on sports bets are removed from the GGR tax calculation. The state’s tax share through June totaled about $6 million.
Of the tax money, 1% goes to the South Dakota General Fund. The other 8% is allocated to bankroll the South Dakota Commission on Gaming (50%), promote statewide tourism (40%), and prop up Lawrence County government coffers (10%).
Tourism Rebound
The town of Deadwood saw a great influx of travelers in the years following the HBO series “Deadwood,” which ran for three seasons from 2004 through 2006. But after the Great Recession when Deadwood was no longer the setting of a wildly popular television show, the town experienced a decline in visitor numbers.
A 2019 HBO movie based on the city from “Deadwood” creator and writer David Milch put the historic Gold Rush town back on Midwest travelers’ minds. And in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Deadwood, as well as South Dakota as a whole, has experienced robust visitation.
Travel South Dakota, the state’s tourism promotion arm, reported in January that a record 14.7 million visitors traveled into the state last year. Those visitors spent nearly $5 billion, also an all-time high.
Deadwood is a little over an hour’s drive north of Mount Rushmore.
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