A bill to establish rules for sports gambling in Deadwood is headed to the Senate floor.
A committee approved the bill 8 to 1. It would allow sports gambling inside the Deadwood city limits, but not on mobile phones outside city limits or at kiosks around the state.
The Noem administration drafted the bill. The Deadwood Gaming Association supports it. Mike Rodman is the group’s executive director.
“It would be in Deadwood only," Rodman said of the bill. "The administration’s kind of taking a go-slow approach and making sure that they can properly regulate it and we can properly operate it, so we are accepting that and working with the administration.”
Rodman said other legislative proposals would allow sports gambling on mobile phones and kiosks around the state, all routed through Deadwood. Rodman says the Gaming Association has no position on those proposals.
Voters approved a constitutional amendment in November to allow sports gambling in Deadwood.