South Dakota voters to decide Deadwood sports-betting
The elected representatives on Tuesday decided South Dakota voters should be asked on the November ballot if they want to allow sports wagering in the historic mining town of Deadwood.
The House voted 36-27 for SJR 501. A similar effort failed in the House last year. This time, one difference was that Governor Kristi Noem didn’t oppose it openly.
Spearfish Republican Senator Bob Ewing carried it through the Senate again this year. Lead Republican Timothy Johns led the argument for the House to approve it Tuesday.
Once voters approve, the Legislature would decide how sports betting would be done. Johns, a retired circuit judge, told House members, “It’s already happening. It’s been happening. This is an opportunity to regulate it.”
The proposal would amend the South Dakota Constitution to lift the ban on sports gambling in Deadwood. It also would apply at 8 American Indian tribes’ casinos in the state.
Yankton Democrat Ryan Cwach recalled the argument that Deadwood supporters made last year to block Yankton’s bid to change the constitution to allow for a Yankton casino.
Cwach said Deadwood opposed Yankton’s request to the Legislature of putting the issue on the ballot saying Yankton’s citizens needed to gather signatures on petitions, the way Deadwood residents did for the 1988 election, rather than have lawmakers to do it for them.
However, Rapid City Republican David Johnson pointed out how Deadwood casinos’ taxes and fees benefit not just Deadwood’s historic preservation but Lawrence County’s treasury and state government’s general fund as well.
Dell Rapids Republican Tom Pischke suggested legislators consider how tight state revenues are this year and that lawmakers could give a raise to Medicaid services providers, K-12 teachers and state employees. Governor Noem recommended those groups, who number in the tens of thousands of workers, shouldn’t get more in the next state budget because state tax revenues haven’t grown enough.
Rapid City Republican Mike Diedrich, who in the past has been a lawyer for a gambling company, said 51 communities and 104 organizations throughout South Dakota benefited from historic preservation grants that came from Deadwood gambling proceeds.
“We’ve been on this journey 40 years where we embraced gambling,” said Volga Republican Bob Mills, who sponsored legislation again this year to progressively end South Dakota’s video lottery, which has long been one of the top sources of government’s general revenue after the state sales and use tax.
Mills acknowledged that sports betting probably wouldn’t turn into South Dakota’s most-addictive type of gambling. Still, it was one more opportunity for people to hurt themselves, their families and friends. “In my opinion, we’re in the water up to our chin, and a couple more steps, we’re going to drown.”
