South Dakota Casinos and Gambling

Short Summary: This page looks at the different forms of gambling in the State of South Dakota, discusses the legality of online gambling and gives a detailed listing of all of the casinos in the state.

Wild Bill

The date was August 2nd, 1876 when legendary frontiersman, James Butler, “Wild Bill,” Hickok was shot and killed in Deadwood, South Dakota.

We certainly don’t know the full history of Wild Bill, but what we do know for certain is his date of death and that he became a man whose legend almost certainly far exceeds his actual story—not that the story isn’t an interesting one.

Some would have Wild Bill as an outlaw, and while he certainly didn’t shy completely away from shady doings, he spent much of his time as a man of the law. He was a constable in Monticello Township, Kansas, in his early years. From there, he would go on to become a stable hand after suffering an injury at the paws of a bear. Wild Bill got the bear in the end, but he also got bedridden for the better part of four months.

Wild Bill was also decidedly on the right side in the Civil War, serving with the Union in various capacities until he was discharged. Most notably, he was a teamster who engaged in finding deserters who switched sides to fight for the Confederates. He would also track down soldiers who were drinking during service and rounding up folks who owed money to the Union Army.

He would later find himself as first a Deputy U.S. Marshal in Kansas, then later a full Marshal for the village of Hays, Kansas. He would lose a reelection bid to his deputy, but would simply become the deputy himself, so basically they just switched positions. This mostly came about over an incident in which Wild Bill might have been a little quick to the trigger. Hickok had actually been tried for this shooting, (criminally) but the jury concluded that the shooting was at least legally justifiable.

Why are we talking about this?

Let’s skip some years and visit Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon No. 10 in Deadwood. Hickok was involved in a poker game with one, Jack McCall, where, it has been reported, McCall was getting crushed. Hickok advised McCall to just call it a game until he sobered up and could cover his losses, Hickok then gave McCall some money for breakfast.

McCall might have known not to bite the hand that feeds him, but he certainly didn’t know not to shoot the head that fed him. Apparently insulted, McCall would return the very next day and shoot Wild Bill in the head at point-blank range.

Wild Bill was involved in a game of five-card stud (four up, one down) at the time, and it’s said that the hand he was holding was two pair—Aces and Eights—which has since become referred to as, “Dead Man’s Hand.” Since then, Aces & Eights has been used in various forms of media and there’s even a Video Poker game with that moniker!

So, South Dakota certainly has quite a history when it comes to gambling. In fact, this particular piece of history predates South Dakota’s existence as an actual state!

With that, we’re going to turn our attention to South Dakota’s gambling present.

The Present

It should come as no surprise that the frontier is pretty liberal when it comes to gambling laws, at least, in the case of South Dakota…which is home to nearly every form of gambling.

One notable exception to this is online gambling: state law would have it that any form of gambling not specifically authorized by the state constitutes a Class II Misdemeanor. Pragmatically speaking, we could find no instance of someone facing criminal action for the mere act of gambling online in the capacity of a player. Further, online casinos not located in the United States are obviously out of the jurisdiction of South Dakota, so those operators are immune from prosecution unless they decide to visit the state and make themselves known.

The result is that a few online casinos will not provide their services to residents of South Dakota, though most of them do so anyway. If you’re interested in gambling online, then you should have no problems finding a house willing to accept your action.

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Online Gambling in South Dakota

As we established above, online gambling is not legal in the State of South Dakota and all indications are that casino-style gambling will not be made legal in the state, at least not online, anytime soon. However, as mentioned, we can find no instance of players ever being prosecuted for the mere act of playing online.

One recent change in the state, according to CBS Sports, is sports betting is now legal in the state, but only in the state’s casinos, (listed below) which are all located in Deadwood. There are no mobile apps whatsoever, even for those physically located in Deadwood, so all bets must be made in person.

According to Dakota News Now, there was a resolution to allow for mobile betting in the state, but that measure died a quick Legislative death. Quoting, in part:

The resolution proposed an amendment to the South Dakota constitution. It would have authorized wagering on sporting events by individuals located around the state by using their cellphone or another electronic platform. Had the resolution passed, it would have put the issue on the 2022 general election ballot, and voters would have ultimately decided its fate.

Ultimately, the resolution to give South Dakotans the opportunity to vote on it failed by a vote of 10-3 and did not make it out of committee. We suspect that the politicians who voted against did so because they suspected that the citizens of the state would vote for its passage in the 2022 General Election, but they never got the chance.

Given the governmental opposition just to sports betting, we could not imagine a bill that would allow for online casino-style games, or poker, to come to a vote anytime in the near future. In fact, it’s quite possible that no such vote will ever go to the public, and given the 10-3 vote against an online sports betting bill, we suspect that won’t be getting passed anytime soon, either.

Fortunately, there are many casinos offering their services in the State of South Dakota, many of whom are highly reputable and have been around for years, if not over a decade. If you’re looking to play a bit without having to drive all the way to Deadwood, feel free to check out our top recommendations below!

Charitable Gambling

With that, let’s turn our attention to Charitable Gambling in the state.

Bingo and raffles are the two Charitable exceptions to what would normally be the state’s prohibition on gambling. Those who wish to conduct a raffle must register the intent to do so with the city/county in question no fewer than thirty days prior to the raffle in question. If tickets for the raffle are to be sold statewide, or in other jurisdictions, then notice of same must be provided to the Secretary of State’s Office.

As far as bingo goes, we’ll quote directly from the site of the South Dakota Legislature:

The game, bingo, as defined in § 22-25-23, or lottery, as defined in § 22-25-24, may not be construed as gambling or as a lottery within the meaning of § 22-25-1, if:

(1) The bingo game or lottery is conducted by a bona fide congressionally chartered veterans’ organization; a religious, charitable, educational, or fraternal organization; a local civic or service club; a political party; a volunteer fire department; a local industrial development corporation as defined in § 5-14-23; or a political action committee or political committee on behalf of any candidate for a political office which exists under the laws of the State of South Dakota;

(2) The proceeds therefrom do not inure to the benefit of any individual;

(3) No separate organization or professional person is employed to conduct the bingo game or lottery or assist therein;

(4) No compensation of any kind in excess of the state minimum wage per hour or sixty dollars, whichever is greater, in value is paid to any person for services rendered during any bingo session in connection with the conduct of the bingo game or in consideration of any lottery. However, the provisions of this subdivision do not apply to games or lotteries conducted in connection with any of the following events: a county fair conducted pursuant to § 7-27-3, the state fair conducted pursuant to chapter 1-21, or a civic celebration recognized by resolution or other similar official action of the governing body of a county, municipality, or village;

(5) No prize in excess of two thousand dollars is awarded at any one play of bingo;

(5A) The actual value of any lottery prize is stated before any chances for the lottery are sold. A lottery prize of a stated amount of dollars in value may be given to a person who sells a winning lottery ticket or share as long as the winning lottery ticket or share is selected at random;

(6) The organizations authorized under subdivision (1) of this section, before conducting a bingo game or before selling any chances for a lottery give thirty days’ written notice of the time and place thereof to the governing body or designated administrative official of the county or municipality in which it intends to conduct the bingo game or lottery, and the governing body does not pass a resolution objecting thereto. However, any organization that conducts a lottery and tickets or shares for such lottery are sold state-wide shall provide written notice of such lottery pursuant to this subdivision only to the secretary of state and to the governing body where the drawing for such lottery is held. A municipality pursuant to § 9-29-5 may by ordinance prohibit within the municipality the sale of lottery tickets or shares for such lottery issued pursuant to this section; and

(7) No organization authorized to conduct a bingo game or lottery under subdivision (1) of this section may enter into any lease or agreement with any other person or organization to provide equipment or services associated with the conduct of a bingo game or lottery. However, this subdivision does not apply to any lease or agreement with a distributor licensed pursuant to §§ 22-25-28 to 22-25-51, inclusive, to provide bingo or lottery equipment and supplies.

Basically, bingo jackpots cannot exceed $2,000 for one game and it has to be one of the approved entities conducting the bingo, per Section 1.

The thirty days’ notice that we discussed as relates raffles also applies to Bingo. Where the website says, “Lottery,” they’re actually referring to what would normally be called, “Raffles.”

The remaining bingo laws concern the distribution of supplies and how much must be paid in order to be licensed to do that.

As far as the charities/non-profits themselves are concerned, it appears that the State of South Dakota does not charge a tax or fee on revenues, nor is there a licensing fee. While it’s true that they are somewhat limited (compared to other states) in terms of what they can offer, we would say that fact is more than offset by the fact that they don’t have to pay anything to the state!

Nice job, South Dakota!

Lottery

The next thing that we’ll take a look at is the South Dakota State Lottery. The most recent Annual Report is for the year 2019 and can be found here.

Page 5 of the report conveniently lists the revenues and prizes from each lottery type, so that’s going to make it really easy for us to determine the percentage returns to player:

We want to make it very clear that video lottery DOES NOT refer to the machines in the state’s casinos, which return significantly better than that.

South Dakota Video Lottery machines are similar in concept to what players might find in the, “Parlors,” of West Virginia and Illinois. Furthermore, what the lottery is calling, “Prizes,” just refers to cash-in v. cash-out, so players put in some 785M+ and cashed out 555M+….the machines DO NOT actually return 70.7%. The overall return of the machines is probably comparable to those in most casinos and significantly more than 785.8M in total bets was made on the SD Video Lottery machines. When it comes to the actual return-to-player, we would guess high-80’s to low-90’s. The maximum bet allowed is $2 and the maximum possible jackpot is $1,000.

In terms of Instant Tickets, we’d say that the return is about average, compared to nationwide numbers. The return of drawing type games is also roughly average, if not maybe the thinnest hair better than average.

In short, it is what it always is: Drawing Games and Instant Tickets suck and nobody should ever play them.

South Dakota participates in Powerball, Mega Millions and two other national jackpot-type games. The state actually only has one game that is fully within state and does not conduct a Daily 3 (Pick 3) or Daily 4 (Pick 4) Drawing of any kind.

In terms of losses, South Dakota residents lost $10,916,823 to instant tickets and $14,325,225 to drawing games for a total of $25,242,048. We are not going to include video lottery for these purposes because most states do not have it, and if you’re comparing our pages in terms of lottery take per resident, we want it to remain consistent.

Based on a population of 884,659, we find that the average South Dakota resident lost $28.53/resident to the lottery. Of course, now it becomes relevant to add in video lottery so we can see how the state compares to other lotteries, in terms of overall numbers.

Factoring in the $230,233,469 lost to Video Lottery, we get a new total loss of $255,475,517, which amounts to about $288.78/resident…putting South Dakota amongst the top performers in this metric!

We can’t emphasize this enough: Traditional lottery sucks, players know it sucks, responsible sites such as this one are going to continue to say it sucks and convenience gambling with Video Lottery Terminals (VLT’s) is the way every state should go. It’s what the players want. It makes the most money for the state. It creates the most jobs.

No brainer.

Casinos

As far as casinos go, South Dakota has no shortage of those, either. It’s only fitting that Commercial Casinos are permitted in Deadwood. In addition to those, Tribal Casinos are basically spread throughout the state.

As we also mentioned in the lottery section, even if there’s no nearby casino that’s convenient to you, chances are pretty good that a location with South Dakota Video Lottery is.

We’ll get into more detail on the casinos in that section.

Pari-Mutuel Wagering/Racing

We’re mentioning racing in this section only because horse racing (and betting on same) is legal in the state. From a practical standpoint, there are no full-time operating dedicated horse tracks at this time.

Greyhound racing was popular in the state decades ago, but has since been made illegal and those tracks all turned to (more) dust.

Land Casinos In South Dakota

That brings us to the full listing of land casinos in the State of South Dakota, but first a few notes:

We will list Deadwood Commercial Casinos and Tribal Casinos altogether, so all casinos will be listed in alphabetical order. The reason why is because Deadwood is the only city that Commercial Casinos are allowed to be in—think of it like the Atlantic City of the Frontier. Therefore, if the location is anywhere but Deadwood, then you know it’s automatically a Tribal Casino.

We are not going to list all of the establishments in which Video Lottery Terminals from the State Lottery can be found because there are more than 1,200 such locations. If you’re in South Dakota, then you’re probably near one, (lots of bars) so Siri or Google can get you there.

Buffalo Bodega Gaming Complex

Located on Main Street in Deadwood, Buffalo Bodega Gaming Complex has one of the oldest bars in town, so old, in fact, that Wild Bill might have visited had he lived a year or so longer.

Speaking of historical frontier figures, Buffalo Bill Cody himself did indeed visit the bar here! In fact, he gave them a life-sized stuffed buffalo to display. I guess he liked the name! Not only that, but he was actually friends with the original owner of the saloon, Mike Russell; they hunted together.

The Buffalo Steakhouse is the property’s primary eatery and is open varying hours seven days a week.

This is a very small property in casino terms, so we suggest stopping in for the history, rather than the gambling. We spoke to an employee named Tammy, who informed us that there are machines in three different rooms and the total is probably right around eighty machines. From their website, we can tell that denominations range from pennies to five-spots.

The property is not home to table games.

The property has two bars in addition to the restaurant and occasionally features live entertainment on weekends.

The property is also not home to a hotel, but down and across the street is the oldest hotel in all of Deadwood. Buffalo Bodega advertises for Bullock Hotel on its own site.

Obviously, this isn’t the sort of place that you would design an entire trip around visiting, but if the overall of visiting Deadwood (or if you’re just passing through the area) appeals to you, then you absolutely have to stop by! How cool is it that you can have a drink in the same bar where Buffalo Bill Cody once did? That’s amazing!

Hey, if it’s good enough for Buffalo Bill, you can bet the last gold dollar in your saddlebag that it’s good enough for me.

Cadillac Jack’s Gaming Resort

Another Deadwood property, though bigger, Cadillac Jack’s Gaming Resort is a casino and hotel. Is it what you’d normally think of when you hear, “Resort Casino,” probably not—but let’s learn some more about it anyway.

The first thing that we find is that Cadillac Jack’s promotes three hotels on its website, all franchise hotels, but the DoubleTree by Hilton is the one that shares an address with Cadillac Jack’s. We’re not exactly sure why they wouldn’t lead with that, (it’s the third listed) but there you go.

The DoubleTree is home to 107 combined guest rooms and suites as well as three meeting rooms, making this a good spot to host your conference or event. Guests will enjoy complimentary wireless internet, refrigerators, microwaves and coffee makers in the rooms. The hotel is also home to a fitness center, business center and outdoor patio with a fire pit. There’s also a separate area for pets, so we can assume this is a nice hotel to stop at if you’re traveling with a little companion.

The casino floor is home to more than 240 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines. That definitely makes it a more sizable casino floor than is Buffalo Bodega, but definitely not the sort of size that makes one think, “Resort.”

There are twenty-two gaming tables, of which six are live Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, so sixteen, “Table Games,” in the sense we’d normally use the term. Most of these tables are Blackjack, though the casino is also home to Craps and Roulette. Sure, it’s just the basics, but sometimes you only need the basics to have a good time. Posted hours vary by game and could change anytime, so we recommend checking their website for your game of choice.

It would seem that, bar aside, Cadillac Jack’s is not directly home to an eatery, the addresses for the eateries would have them a few doors down. Of course, this section of Main Street is basically one large complex, so we’ll list the eateries as if they were in the casino.

Guadalajara’s is the Mexican Restaurant, Flyt Steakhouse and Nightclub is not as upscale as it sounds, expect dinner prices more akin to high-end American casual…so, a little more than something like Applebee’s would be, but not by much. Earl of Sandwich does what it says on the sign with hot sandwiches, Marco’s Pizza does what that sign says and Made Market is a place for a quick grab & go bites as well as home to a Starbucks.

Anyway, it’s certainly not a destination gambling resort unto itself, but if you’re going to Deadwood, chances are you’re doing it for the overall experience, which makes just about every place worth a stop. Based on the size relative to other Deadwood properties, they probably have one of the more active Blackjack pits to be found.

Dakota Connection Casino and Travel Center

The first of our Native American listings on this page, Dakota Connection Casino and Travel Center is owned by the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribe and is located in Sisseton. The casino opens at 10:00 a.m. daily and closes at midnight, except on weekends, when it’s open until 2:00 a.m.

The property is home to 190 combined video poker, slot and video keno machines. The machines are a mix of Class III machines (RNG-similar to machines you’d find in Vegas, or anywhere else) as well as Class II, “Electronic Bingo,” games.

This location also offers a bingo room that opens at 5:30 p.m. daily and closes at varying times depending on the day of the week. The property usually tries to have one Bingo promotion or another going on every day of the week, so we’d recommend checking their website for more details if that’s your thing.

This casino is also home to Crossroads Restaurant, a casual eatery that serves lunch and dinner and is open from 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. seven days per week.

The convenience store section (it is a travel center) is also home to an eatery called Mean Gene’s Grill for grab & go eats. That’s open 24/7, so even if Crossroads Restaurant is closed, you won’t have to go hungry. Finally, the property houses an area where you can get your oil changed and/or get new tires, if you need them. Seems like as good a place to do so as any, since you’ll at least have a fun way to kill the time while you wait.

This little place is obviously not a destination of any kind, but if you’re passing through the area and need gas, then you should give it a look. It’s also a pretty cool place for locals or truckers to hang out, so you really can’t go wrong.

Besides, you can go check out the games while you get your oil changed, that’s tough to beat!

Dakota Sioux Casino and Hotel

Located in Watertown, Dakota Sioux Casino and Hotel is another property that is Native American owned and operated. Specifically, the property is owned by the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation.

Guests of the hotel will enjoy amenities such as complimentary wireless internet, free entertainment (along with the casino) in the property’s lounge on weekends and guest laundry. The hotel is home to several guest rooms and also has a few suites.

We can’t promise that the promotion will last forever, but as of the time of this writing (and for years before) players could get a free standard room at the hotel by earning 750 points ($750 coin-in) on their players card on Sunday-Thursday. You’d probably have to play a bit more than that for your offers to include comped weekend rooms. If you’re traveling by RV, you’re still in luck as the property is also home to an RV park.

The casino floor is actually one of the larger ones in the state boasting roughly 450 combined video poker, slot and video keno games. Denominations range from pennies to five bucks a spin. Table Games include Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em and something called Silverado Stud Poker. Blackjack is the only game listed as open every day, so you’ll want to call ahead for the usual operating days/times for the other games.

The poker room is open on the weekends with Texas Hold ‘Em and Seven-Card Stud being the available games dealt.

Mustang Restaurant is open throughout the day and serves all three-breakfast, lunch and dinner. They do close between meal times for detailed cleaning, so we would recommend checking their website for more details on that as those times may change every so often.

The casino would also normally be home to a deli, but that appears to be closed as of the time of this writing. It’s difficult to tell if/when it will reopen, but the website doesn’t suggest that it won’t be opening back up at some point.

The concert hall and lounge has appeared to suspend live entertainment at this time. Fortunately, residents of Watertown are in luck as it appears that the casino has not suspended its complimentary shuttle service to them.

The property also has a few rooms for meetings, conventions, weddings and other events.

Overall, this is one of the more sizable casinos in South Dakota, but again, definitely not a destination unto itself. Mostly, it seems that it caters to locals and nearby folks who want to have a, “Staycation,” at the property. There’s nothing wrong with that and we definitely think it’s worth checking out if you happen to be passing through the area.

Deadwood Gulch Gaming Resort

Located on Cliff Street in Deadwood, let’s find out if this is another property that’s extremely liberal with using the word, “Resort.”

The property at least checks the first box, which is to have a hotel. Patrons of the guest rooms or suites will enjoy complimentary wireless internet, fitness center, business center, hot tub and complimentary hot breakfast.

The second box that the property checks is that the casino is at least open 24 hours. Of course, it’s not a large casino by any stretch of the imagination, given that it’s home to only 120 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines.

The Fireside Lounge is the property’s only eatery, which serves bar-style food.

Finally, it does not appear that the property is home to any table games, or poker.

Overall, we can conclude that the use of the word, “Resort,” is less than judicious when it comes to this small casino property. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re going to plan a trip to Deadwood, (which we do recommend) and you’ve got to stay somewhere, so maybe check the rooms out and see what you think. We’d probably prefer to be on Main Street.

Deadwood Mountain Grand Casino and Hotel

This property is located on Deadwood Mountain Drive and the hotel on the property is a Holiday Inn. Their slogan is, “This Place Rocks!”, which is pretty cute.

And, it probably does rock. But, let’s take a look at what they have to offer to see how hard it rocks:

The property’s hotel consists of 98 guest rooms and suites and it bills itself as a, “Luxury hotel.” Hotel guests will enjoy free wireless internet, valet parking, business center, a 24-hour swimming pool and hot tub (that’s pretty cool) as well as a 24 hour fitness room. It’s not often that you see a property with a 24 hour pool, so if you wake up in the middle of the night and are having trouble, “Finding tired,” maybe take some laps and see if that helps. Fair warning: That’ll probably just make you more awake.

Deadwood Mountain Grand is probably one of the few casino properties with live entertainment scheduled for later this year, most are abstaining (2020) due to the CV-19 pandemic. This writer applauds Deadwood Mountain Grand for letting people do their own assessments and deciding whether or not they wish to participate in such activities.

The casino floor is home to approximately 200 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines. They also have several gaming tables spreading Blackjack, Craps, Three-Card Poker, Roulette and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. Some of these games are likely not available around the clock, so we recommend calling ahead for the typical hours that you can expect your game of choice.

In terms of dining, Chef Aaron Edwards brings you Six String, a casual and fun American food restaurant. The property is also home to Santana’s Bar and Grill, which serves the expected pub fare as well as being the main watering hole for the casino.

There’s not much else to say. The main selling points for this property are the mountain location (if that’s what you’re going for) as well as the fact that it’s one of the nicer hotels in town. We definitely recommend visiting Deadwood if you can (even though it’s tough to recommend any ONE casino) and we think the quality of the rooms and amenities should put this on your shortlist of hotel options if you do.

Deadwood Station Bunkhouse and Gambling Hall

Located on the far end of Main Street, Deadwood Station Bunkhouse and Gambling Hall basically does what it says on the box. The casino opens at 7:00 a.m. daily and remains open until either 10:00 a.m. or Midnight, depending on the day of the week.

As far as the bunkhouse goes, it basically consists of pretty simple rooms, but functional and clean. Guests will enjoy complimentary wireless internet access as well as a continental breakfast. The total room count for this property is twenty.

The, “Gambling Hall,” is definitely closer to being that than it is to being a casino, so nobody can accuse them of being dishonest in that regard. In total, there are twenty machines which also includes a few of the VLT’s that are ran through the state lottery department. They occasionally have a bingo night, typically once a week.

The property’s eatery is The Miner’s Saloon and bills itself as an, “Old Time Saloon.” The offerings are pretty simple: A few TVs and some bar eats, such as pizza and wings. In addition to the saloon itself, this is also home to the property’s gift shop area—which exists as part of the saloon.

This is probably mostly just a hangout for people who live or work in the area and also a place to stay if you’re passing through. The machines are likely mostly for locals or as a convenience for guests of the property if they just don’t feel like going anywhere that day. It’s really tough to recommend this one if you’re primarily interested in a casino hotel because this place is definitely more hotel/bar and less casino.

First Gold Hotel and Gaming

Located on the 200 block of Main Street, First Gold Hotel and Gambling is another gambling spot in historic Deadwood. This casino hotel property also bills itself as, “First Gold Gaming Resort,” but we already know that R word gets thrown around a lot, so let’s look into the offerings:

The first thing to note is that this property is technically home to two hotels: The first one bears the casino’s name and the second one appears to be a Travelodge by Wyndham…which isn’t exactly the flag I would normally associate with a resort property. In any event, the Travelodge has both smoking and non-smoking rooms and suites, all rooms have a refrigerator and microwave. Guests will also enjoy free wireless internet and an exercise room.

The First Gold branded hotel is a step up. Similar to Travelodge, all rooms and suites include a refrigerator, coffee maker and microwave. Two differences are firstly that the entire First Gold hotel is non-smoking and pet free (The Travelodge has a few pet-friendly rooms). This hotel is also home to a (larger) fitness center as well as a business center. So, mostly the same thing with slightly nicer rooms.

Honestly, there’s not even much difference in the prices from one to another.

The casino floor is home to some 275 combined slot machines, video poker and video keno games ranging in denomination from pennies to $25. That makes the slot floor one of the larger ones in the state and the first we have encountered so far in this listing to go above $5 in denomination. The casino does not appear to be home to table games at this time, or any other form of gambling aside from the machines.

The property is home to two eateries: First, Horseshoe Restaurant serves American casual breakfast, lunch and dinner; secondly, the Gold Nugget Buffet is the property’s buffet.

There’s really not much else to be said, so as we can see, it’s just another property that likes to throw the word, “Resort,” around a bit liberally for our liking. Overall, there’s absolutely no reason to plan a trip specifically for this property, but plenty of reasons to go to Deadwood—and, you have to stay somewhere, so maybe check it out!

Fort Randall Casino and Hotel

Fort Randall Casino and Hotel, despite the name, is actually owned by the Yankton Sioux Tribe and is located in Lake Andes, South Dakota. This Native American Casino makes no claims to resort-hood, but is perhaps as close to being a resort as any number of other locations in the state that like to make the claim.

The hotel is home to more than fifty guest rooms and guests will enjoy complimentary wireless internet access.

The casino floor is home to about 350 combined video poker, video keno and slot machines. There are a handful of gaming tables, which are mostly blackjack along with a few poker tables at which Texas Hold ‘Em is dealt. The property is also home to regular sessions of Live Bingo, which can vary, so we recommend checking out their website or calling for more details.

The combination lounge/restaurant is known as Four Directions Restaurant and serves lunch and dinner. The property is also home to a gift shop as well as a travel center, so you can get convenience store type options there if the restaurant is closed.

As with many of these types of casinos, this is mostly going to be a place for locals and those who are in the area anyway, rather than a destination unto itself. Still, if you happen to be passing through the area, it doesn’t hurt to stop in and take a look.

Gold Country Inn, Gambling Hall and Cafe

This Deadwood property is often shortened just to, “Gold Country,” or, “Gold Country Inn,’ and folks will know what you’re talking about.

Located on the corner of the 800 block of Main Street, the, “Inn,” section of the property is a simple one comparable to a decent economy hotel. The rooms are simple, but clean, and guests enjoy free wireless internet. The property is home to 53 guest rooms.

The, “Gambling Hall,” isn’t much bigger than a hallway and features something like twenty total video poker, slot and video keno machines. While penny denomination slot machines are available, this isn’t going to be on the short list for high-rollers visiting Deadwood as the largest denomination is dollars. They also advertise Game King Multi-Game units as being the, “Newest,” machines in the gambling hall…and those have only been around for a few decades or so already.

The property’s eatery is the cafe, which serves breakfast and lunch, but is best known for one of the heartiest and tastiest breakfasts to be found in Deadwood. We’re not even joshing you on this one, ask anyone and they’ll tell you: the breakfast is awesome! If not to gamble, if you’ve got a trip to Deadwood in your future, then we recommend at least checking this stop out for breakfast…or maybe just stay there if you’re on a budget. (It’s one of the cheaper hotels in town)

There’s really not much else to say about it: It’s a cafe mainly known for breakfast and independent economy hotel that happens to have some slot machines. It’s a good thing they have that great breakfast, otherwise, there’d be no reason to visit.

Gold Dust Gaming and Entertainment Complex/Gold Dust Casino and Hotel

If there’s not enough gold to be had at Gold Country Inn, then perhaps you can try to strike pay dirt at the Gold Dust Gaming and Entertainment Complex. The property actually now bills itself as the, “Gold Dust Casino and Hotel.”

Billing itself as a, “Luxury Hotel,” not that I believe any buzzwords coming from Deadwood anymore, guests will enjoy free wireless internet, coffee maker, refrigerator, microwave and business center in this pet-friendly hotel. The hotel is nicely appointed enough, in terms of aesthetics, but does not even have any suites…so wherever the luxury is supposed to be, it’s lost on me.

The casino floor consists of 75 slot machines ranging in denomination from pennies to $25, so it seems that they’ll take higher bets than many other casinos in the state. The one thing that we’ll say about the property is that the slot titles are actually (in some cases) relatively new compared to other gambling stops throughout the state, so we’ll give credit where it’s due on that.

The casino is also home to a few gambling tables, which share roughly equal space with the slot machines. Games dealt are Blackjack, Roulette, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em and Three Card Poker. Table Games are open 24 hours on weekend days.

The property’s eatery is called Mavericks Steaks and Cocktails, which serves lunch and dinner. Prices are pretty consistent with your average chain restaurant, but perhaps the food is better.

That all aside, we’re really not sure where the, “Luxury,” is supposed to be, but it seems like a reasonably good property overall. Most of the places in Deadwood are just small hotel casinos with a little restaurant, but Deadwood itself is undoubtedly worth visiting and you have to stay somewhere. We recommend giving this (and basically all) of the Deadwood properties a look.

The Golden Buffalo Casino Restaurant and Motel

The Golden Buffalo (for short) is a Native-American owned and operated casino located in Lower Brule, South Dakota. Specifically, it’s owned by the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.

The hotel rooms are pretty basic, but they conveniently have a microwave, refrigerator and coffee maker in every room. Guests will also enjoy complimentary wireless internet access. Prices for the hotel rooms seem to be right around the average economy hotel range for the U.S.A. on the whole.

This might be your place if you like high-denomination action, as it’s one of the few casinos in the state that have $100 denomination machines. Of course, the full range runs from pennies all the way up to the C-Notes. All told, there are nearly 200 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines.

During normal times, apparently there would be free beer for players, but the casino has suspended that as of the time of this writing; (August 2020) they seem to indicate that they’re going to bring it back sometime down the road. The casino’s hours are easy to remember, for the time being, they’re open from eleven to eleven.

Normally, there would be a restaurant known simply as Golden Buffalo Restaurant. It would normally serve all three and could be described as Casual American food at casual American prices.

This is another place that’s mostly going to cater to locals and people who live near the area, or who would be visiting the area anyway. Nothing wrong with that, but it makes it extremely tough for us to recommend going unless you don’t have to go far at all. If you happen to be passing through, maybe stop by and take a look; hopefully, the restaurant will have opened back up.

Grand River Casino and Resort

As a former hotel manager, I get a little bit annoyed every time I see the word, “Resort.” Half of these places that claim to be, “Resorts,” don’t have anything (except a casino) that we didn’t have, and we described ourselves as an, “Economy hotel.”

I guess what I’m saying is that I remember a time when words meant something.

But, maybe this place will surprise us, only one way to find out:

Located in Mobridge, South Dakota, Grand River Casino :clears throat: and Resort is owned and operated by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota. Apparently, the property is home to cabins and a campground, so if you’re travelling with minors, you’re relegated to that as the hotel is for those 18+. The hotel consists of forty guest rooms of which two are whirlpool suites. Amenities include in-room coffee makers and wireless internet.

To say that the rooms that are not suites are, “Simply appointed,” would be to glorify them. There’s absolutely nothing about the rooms or the hotel amenities that would lead one to conclude that they were at a resort property.

The casino floor consists of about 40,000 square feet of gaming space and is home to 250 combined video poker, slot and video keno machines. Denominations at this supposed resort range from pennies to five-spots, which is a pretty unique max bet for a resort. You’d think it would be more.

The casino floor is also home to a few gaming tables spreading Blackjack and dealing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. They proudly proclaim that the bet ranges on Blackjack are $5-$50, so this resort is apparently a little timid when it comes to action.

The property’s eatery is called River’s Edge and…well, it’s a diner is what it is. It serves all three, breakfast, lunch and dinner at dirt cheap prices…which is great, but how can you call yourself a RESORT when your only dining option is a low-rent diner? That’s not a Resort, it’s a Main Street of a very small town.

They have a combination convenience store and gift shop.

We’re not looking to denigrate the property, it’s nice enough, lovely, even. The problem is that this sort of property…they either need to not use the word, “Resort,” or actual resorts need to start calling themselves something else. With all due respect to this perfectly fine establishment, if it’s a resort, then everything is a resort. My bedroom is a resort—it has an attached bathroom. Slap a Starbucks in here and I’d have a mega-resort.

I mean, seriously. It’s just ridiculous, at this point.

But, yeah, it’s a decent little locals casino for a staycation and we recommend checking it out if you happen to be going through the area. The surrounding area really is gorgeous and the property is good enough if it would just bill itself as, “Casino and Hotel.”

Hickok’s Casino

We love the name already!

Named and themed after none other than Wild Bill himself, and located in Deadwood, Hickok’s Casino just screams, “COOL!”, right off the bat.

Originally offices and apartments, the upper floors of this property were converted to a hotel that consists of 22 guest rooms and suites. Other than a few necessary modifications, the place is designed to essentially resemble what it might have looked like in the late 1800’s.

The casino floor might only consist of 100 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines, but true to form, Wild Bill, ain’t afraid to gamble: denominations range from pennies to hundreds. Some of the slot machine choices are relatively modern and there are a few electronic table games, but no actual table games or live poker.

While the place is awesome, it seems like a bit of a disservice not to have at least one live poker table at a place called, “Hickok’s,” considering he literally died at the poker table.

The property’s lounge is also its eatery and serves typical quick American food (burgers and such). Additionally, there is a pizza place on the property that seems to be pretty highly regarded.

At least some of the rooms even have claw-foot bathtubs like you’d have seen back in the late-1800’s.

Bottom line: If you’re going to Deadwood, this place has to be on your shortlist of where to stay. It’s not huge and doesn’t have the most in terms of gambling offerings, but it’s about as neat as it gets. For me, it’s not on my shortlist, IT IS my list. This is where I’m going from now on anytime I visit Deadwood. It’s totally awesome. They really do need to get a poker table, though.

Historic Bullock Hotel

The Historic Bullock Hotel is the hotel linked to by the casino in the first listing on this page. Apparently, this is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Deadwood, so that’s definitely pretty neat. The Historic Bullock Hotel is located on Main Street along with most of the other properties.

Perhaps you’re the type who believes in ghosts, if so, it is claimed that the first Sheriff of Deadwood, Seth Bullock, walks the halls of this lodge to this very day. While that may or may not be true, what’s definitely true is that guests will enjoy complimentary wireless internet, two complimentary bottles of water and a rustic theme in the guest rooms and suites. Suites also include a refrigerator and microwave, though those might take away from the rustic look somewhat.

Here’s an interesting blurb from the property’s website on gambling in Deadwood:

Deadwood was the first jurisdiction outside of Nevada and Atlantic City in the United States that truly legalized gambling. And they did it in a unique way for the small community to use legal gambling revenues as a way of maintaining local historic qualities. On November 1, 1989, legalized gambling was once again alive and well in Deadwood! Since that time slot machines, poker and blackjack have been going strong and immediately brought significant new revenues and development for the City of Deadwood.

They also say that, prior to the legalization of gambling, some of the first slot machines ever designed (by Charles Fey) were brought and operated (illegally, of course) to Deadwood. Slot machine denominations range from pennies to fives, complimentary beer and wine are offered to players and there are no table games. The property also claims that Sheriff Seth is watching the casino floor, so make sure not to try any funny business!

Open Wednesday-Sunday, and despite its name, Bully’s Restaurant is all class, all the time. The centerpiece of this upscale restaurant is a large ornate fireplace. Why Bully’s? It was President Theodore Roosevelt’s nickname (aside from Teddy), of course, and he was friends with the original owner of the property. In addition to the fireplace, period photography and art from the time also adorns the walls.

This is an excellent destination if you intend to visit Deadwood, don’t prioritize staying in a place that has table games and don’t mind shelling out a little extra change. Even if you don’t stay, we strongly recommend at least stopping in and giving it a look. Aside from that, live a little and check out Bully’s for one of your meals while you’re in town—if you can even get reservations, of course.

Iron Horse Inn/Wooden Nickel Casino

Make sure that you put in, “Iron Horse Inn Deadwood,” if you’re intending to book a room, otherwise, you may well find yourself with reservations in the State of Arizona. Of course, Arizona’s a whole different page, so we want Deadwood, South Dakota.

The Iron Horse Inn is a nicely appointed and Victorian-themed hotel and casino property located about a block from Main Street, so you’re pretty close to where most of the action is. The rooms range pretty wildly in price from under $50 to over $100, but that’s because they range in types from extremely standard rooms to spacious and aesthetically pleasing suites. One amenity that all guests will enjoy, regardless of room type, is free wireless internet.

The casino floor of the Iron Horse Inn has been combined with the previously adjacent Wooden Nickel Casino to create a larger casino floor consisting of about twenty machines. This combined area goes by the name, “Wooden Nickel Casino,” so while they are listed separately on many listings pages…these two places are effectively the same thing.

The property is home to a relatively well-known pizza place and pub. The pizza place is called Three Cousins Pizza while the pub is known as Stan and Ollie’s Pub. Additionally, the property is home to Lee Street Restaurant, which serves mostly breakfast and lunch, but sometimes also serves dinner during the Summer months.

There’s really not much else to say about the property. If you intend to visit Deadwood, which you should intend to do as soon as possible, it’s worth a look as a potential place to bed your head. Of course, this shouldn’t be on your shortlist if you want immediate access to varied gaming options or table games, but it does seem like a neat little place to be (with a few eating choices) if you don’t feel like playing much that day.

Lucky 8 Gaming

Another Deadwood property, this is one of the few Super 8’s (economy hotel chain) you’ll find in America that can list a casino as one of its amenities. In any event, if you’ve ever stayed at a Super 8, you basically know what you’re getting—an economy hotel with few frills, but decent rates and cleanliness.

This fully non-smoking property might even be one of the nicer Super 8’s as guests will enjoy an indoor pool, complimentary wireless internet, and an in-room coffee maker at this fully non-smoking hotel. The property consists of 51 guest rooms and suites.

Nobody really seemed to have an immediately available machine count at the property, but we’re going to put the number at something under fifty.

Anyway, there are no table games and this property is undoubtedly hotel first and casino second…or maybe even third to the restaurant. Either way, if you’re looking for a really nice place to stay and relax while you take in the more exciting aspects of Deadwood, this Super 8 is as good a place to do that as any.

Lode Star Casino and Hotel

The Lode Star Casino and Hotel is owned and operated by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation and is located in Fort Thompson, South Dakota.

This property is relatively simple and promotes itself as being near some of the best fishing and hunting in the area even before it mentions its casino operations. Unfortunately, most of the hot links on the site aren’t actually programmed to link to anything, so it’s tough to get much in the way of specific information and we haven’t actually been to this one.

The site just flat out doesn’t work, but that’s okay, we can share what they say about themselves on their homepage:

Hau Koda–hello friend, and welcome to Fort Thompson, home of Lode Star Casino! Our town may be small, but big things are happening. Nestled right next to the Missouri River, our lands are home to some of the best hunting and fishing in central South Dakota, colorful bluffs, wildlife and historic waterways once explored by Lewis and Clark.

Whether you’re looking for a weekend getaway or just passing through, you’ll find hours worth of entertainment at Lode Star. Our casino floor features over 200 of some of the loosest slots for miles around, which means BIG WINS! Our blackjack and poker tables are always happening Thursday through Sunday, whether you’re looking to play for the thrill or shooting for BIG MONEY. Our entertainment venue also hosts some of the most unique acts and events in the region. But don’t stop there. Make a night of it, and enjoy a stay in our clean, comfortable motel rooms and dine in our restaurant and lounge. Looking for a group outing? Contact us for shuttle van and bussing details.

Visit our website often for event and promotion news. We look forward to BIG THINGS HAPPENING during your time at Lode Star Casino.

So, we can gather from this that there are some 200 slot machines on the property. We can also determine that there are Blackjack and poker tables (likely Texas Hold ‘Em) that operate from Thursday-Sunday, so there you go.

There’s also a dining tab that doesn’t work, so chances are they have food. If you go to this casino, there will be food.

It’s one thing to call to get clarification on something like hotel room or machine count, but I’m not going to call them and ask to know literally everything about the property. We’ll check back at some point in the future to see if the website is working, and if so, will update the page at that time. We might be the first people from out-of-state to even visit this website in quite some time, who knows?

The Lodge at Deadwood Gaming Resort

Finally, we have a place in Deadwood that bills itself a, “Resort,” and might even pass for a resort if we’re not too nitpicky about it. This place is called, “The Lodge at Deadwood Gaming Resort,” but it seems like there is no separate place just called, “Deadwood Gaming Resort,” so I guess what we’re saying is it’s an odd name.

Either way, this property is located on Pine Crest Lane and features 140 combined guest rooms and suites. Guests of the hotel will also enjoy rustic and beautifully appointed spacious rooms as well as suites with additional features. Guests will also enjoy complimentary wireless internet while kids have a blast in the indoor water playland. It falls short of being a waterpark (by a lot) and is mostly geared towards really small kids, but they’ll love it. Adults will be able to keep an eye on the tykes from the nearby spacious indoor pool.

The casino floor is as large as any others that you’ll find in the state. It’s home to some 280 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines. The slot machine offerings are also relatively new compared to other casinos in the state.

The table games pit consists of several tables where Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold Em, Three-Card Poker and Mississippi Stud are all dealt. They claim that the table maximums are larger than most other casinos in the area, but don’t offer much in the way of specifics on the website.

The property is home to two eateries: the first of which is the Deadwood Grille and is on the upper end of casual or lower end of upscale, depending on whether or not you’re a glass half full or empty type of person. It’s rustically themed and has an ornate fireplace as the centerpiece. Oggie’s Sports Bar and Emporium is a casual restaurant that does what it says on the sign and serves all three, seven days a week.

Would I really call this Regency Hotel Management property a resort…probably not…but maybe kind of? My standards for what I’ll accept as a resort have declined substantially not that every hotel on Earth can apparently call itself a resort if it feels like it.

The one thing that I will say for this property is that, if you’re going to Deadwood with the family because you want to teach some Frontier history to the youngsters, at least this casino hotel has something for them to do, which is a big improvement. Would I call this a, “Resort,” in comparison to most other casino properties that have that designation—no. Would I call it a resort compared to the other South Dakota properties who see fit to call themselves that—sure.

Main Street Deadwood Gulch Saloon

This place closed in 2019, but we’ll keep you posted for any updates or if it gets purchased by someone else with an intent to reopen.

Mineral Palace Hotel and Gaming

Billing itself as Deadwood’s newest and best casino, we can certainly agree that it’s not hard to be the former when most of the buildings are over a hundred years old.

Their website proudly lists that they have a wide variety of a combined 75 guest rooms and suites. Along with literally everyone else in Deadwood, the property provides complimentary wireless internet for guests. Refrigerators are apparently available in some of the suites, but not all of them. They do have room service that will deliver eats from the property’s steakhouse, so that’s one point. Overall, it doesn’t seem remarkably different from many of the other Deadwood hotels.

It’s possible that their claim of, “Best,” is justified elsewhere, so let’s take a look.

We should probably mention, at this point, that this, “Newest,” casino opened in 1993…Deadwood had gambling legalized in 1989, so this is not remarkably newer than the other casinos. Nice buzzword, though.

They claim to have the highest slot count in Deadwood, and at some 320 machines, that’s probably true…though it’s not like it’s by a mile, or anything. They’ve got a little under 40 more machines than does the next closest place. Denominations range from pennies to $25, which means that they don’t have the highest limits.

Table Games are limited to Blackjack and Three-Card Poker, so they do not have the widest array of table games. More than that, they have neither Bingo nor a poker room.

The Gem Steakhouse is not exclusively a steakhouse, but instead, is the property’s only eatery and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. This eatery is about the price and offerings that you might expect from a casual American chain steakhouse.

All told, this is just a casino hotel that’s never seen a buzzword that it hasn’t liked. It’s the newest almost by way of technicality, and aside from having slightly more slot machines than the nearest competitor, we’re not sure what makes it think it can claim to be the best. It has no poker, fewer table games, fewer rooms, only one restaurant….etc. etc.

In short, this property is fine. As with the others, if you’re taking a trip to Deadwood, you should probably check it out and see if there’s something you like. For our part, we don’t see anything that would make us terribly likely to recommend it over many of the others.

Mustang Sally’s Casino

So…which one of these is not like the rest?

Located in Deadwood, yet sporting a….1950’s retro theme…Mustang Sally’s sticks out like a sore thumb. Also, it’s located on the 600 block of Main Street, talk about killing the aesthetic, especially at night.

Anyway, Mustang Sally’s mostly amounts to a sports bar and theme restaurant that happens to have a handful of machines, there’s really not much more to it than that and it certainly doesn’t make much sense in the context of the rest of Deadwood.

Old Style Saloon No. 10

For our next entry, we go to the place where it all happened: Old Style Saloon No. 10 is the site where Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in cold blood during broad daylight. We definitely recommend taking a peek at their website, as the first thing you will see is a brief reenactment:

In addition to the gambling, this venue also serves as a museum, of sorts. In it can be found artifacts, relics and photographs of over a century past, so whether you intend to play here or not, you absolutely cannot visit Deadwood without stopping by for a look.

The slot floor is home to several machines, many of them will be new(ish) to those of you who don’t frequent Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but for those of you who do frequent the major gambling destinations, you’ll probably have to hit the majority of the casinos in Deadwood before finding something new.

In terms of table games, they deal single-deck Blackjack and Three-Card Poker. On their website, they claim to have the only single-deck Blackjack game in Deadwood…but I feel like I saw single-deck listed on one other site. We don’t list different Blackjack variants because casino websites have a tendency to list all of the numbers of decks (and every side bet under the sun) to pad the list on different table games offered, but for casual gamblers, Blackjack is basically just Blackjack.

They have a few tables for live poker and pay homage to Wild Bill the right way: If you get Deadman’s Hand (Two Pair-Black Aces and Black Eights), then you win 25% of the bad beat jackpot automatically. That’s awesome.

As of the time of this writing, active players can enjoy complimentary fresh popcorn, draft beer or a glass of wine.

The property’s eatery is the Deadwood Social Club, which is an upscale casual steakhouse serving lunch and dinner. Prices are pretty comparable to chain steakhouses. This steakhouse says that they have Italian American as well as farm to table influences, or simply put, a little of everything. The site is also home to the American Whiskey Bar, which features an impressive array of whiskeys from anywhere you can think of.

The property is home to a gift shop that features mostly Saloon No. 10 merchandise, all of which is totally awesome. Despite the name, the Charley Utter Theatre is mostly (if not entirely) a venue for weddings, conventions, meetings and the like. The property is also home to the Ginny Wolf Studio, which sells different types of Frontier art.

The gambling options are pretty standard fare, even by Deadwood standards, but there’s no way you’re going to Deadwood without stopping at this place; I won’t allow it. I’ll personally come to Deadwood and make you check the place out.

Okay, not really, but it’s wicked cool. Even if you’re not going to gamble here, you should definitely come in and take in some of the Frontier history.

Oyster Bay Bar and Casino

The full name of this Deadwood establishment is technically: The Historic Fairmont Hotel Oyster Bay Bar and Casino…and we thought the name that we listed was a mouthful! You can probably just call it Oyster Bay and everyone will know what you mean.

Downstairs is a party and the hotel area is supposed to be the, “Most Haunted,” place in all of Deadwood. The hotel operates guided tours.

The bar component is basically party central and there happens to be a few machines there. The total that we were able to discover is twenty machines on the nose, so this is not going to be your primary spot if you’re mostly concerned with gambling. If you’re mostly concerned with drinking, having a good time and maybe even singing some karaoke, then this is your place.

Prairie Wind Casino and Hotel

The Prairie Wind Casino and Hotel is a Native American owned and operated casino located in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. More specifically, it is owned by the Oglala Lakota Nation.

With exception to a few suites, the hotel rooms at this property are pretty standard fare, but are reasonably nice. Guests will certainly enjoy free wireless internet as well as access to the property’s indoor pool. This is also a property that we recommend booking directly because they offer many package deals (with direct booking) that include free play as well as food credits…so if you’re going to be playing/eating there anyway…that’s basically the same thing as a direct discount on the room.

While the hotel area and rooms are 100% non-smoking, the property does accept pets, in certain rooms, with an additional fee.

The casino floor is fairly sizable, especially by South Dakota standards, and is home to 382 slot machines ranging in denomination from pennies to $25. Divided into smoking and non-smoking sections, the machine areas also have video poker and video keno available. Judging from some of the titles we saw, it would seem that there are both Class II (electronic bingo) and Class III (vegas style random number generator) slots, as they have a few machines with titles that you don’t really seem to see outside of Native American casinos.

The property is home to a few gaming tables that open at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 11:00 a.m. on weekends and are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. How long they stay open on the days they are open mostly depends on how busy they are. Available games are Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em and Three-Card Poker. If you’re looking for anything but Blackjack, then we recommend calling in advance for the general operating hours of the other games.

This being 2020, Bingo is not operating as of the time of this writing due to Covid-19, but they are liable to change that at anytime, so keep an eye on their website if Bingo is your game of choice. The one thing we can say is that, even in normal times, Bingo would only run from Thursday-Saturday nights starting at about 5:00 p.m.

The Stronghold Restaurant is the property’s primary eatery and serves all three, it is open from 7:00a-11:00p daily. On Thursdays and Fridays, they usually run a prime rib and seafood buffet, so those would be great days to check it out if you’re into that. If you combine one of the package hotel deals with their long-standing new member offer for half price meal, then you should be able to eat almost for free, even as a couple, if you’re new card members. The hotel’s coffee and pastry shop is open seven days per week, as well.

Overall, this is a great staycation type property for locals or people who happen to be in the area anyway. Obviously, this isn’t going to be a destination casino by any stretch of the imagination, but they seem to be pretty consistent about trying to offer good value to players and hotel guests alike. If you’re traveling through the area and are going to be within a reasonable distance, then we recommend checking it out.

Quality Inn Rosebud Casino

Depending on where you look, this might be listed as Rosebud Casino and Quality Inn or Quality Inn at the Rosebud Casino, but our listed designation is the one this property seems to like—Quality Inn Rosebud Casino. Located in Mission, South Dakota, this casino/hotel property is owned and operated by the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council and the hotel operates as a Quality Inn franchise with Choice Hotels.

This might work out in your favor if you’re coming from out-of-state, depending on availability, your Choice Rewards points might just get you a free night(s) at this casino property, and as you know, you can’t beat free. The hotel is home to several rooms, which are all fairly alike, as none of them are suites. Hotel amenities include free wireless internet, fitness center, indoor pool and a continental breakfast.

As far as Quality Inns go, this is one franchise that this writer considers to be pretty hit or miss, but this location seems like more of a hit. It’s definitely one of the nicer Quality Inns, with or even without the casino component.

Whoever wrote for Rosebud’s website did a very nice job, they certainly did as well as I could, so for information about the casino, we’ll just borrow from their site:

The Rosebud Casino opened on August 14th, 1994 in what is now the Annex area. The Casino consisted of a small deli, two bathrooms, a cage and a few slot machines. Over the years, it has changed several times to what you now see. We house 250 slot machines, the maximum allowed. We have one Ult. Texas Hold’em, one Three Card Poker and Two blackjack tables, bingo hall, restaurant and deli, and bar. The Quality Inn Hotel and entertainment center were added in 1998, and the hotel has a total of sixty rooms. We host some of the industry’s top entertainers, and have the best concerts for hundreds of miles around.

We would recommend calling ahead for the hours of operation for your table game of choice, with a casino of this size, it’s a virtual guarantee that not all of the games operate around the clock.

The property is home to one eatery, which is called the Rosebud Room. This eatery is basically just casual American food at casual American prices and serves all three. There is a prime rib buffet on certain nights of the week, which seems like it sometimes changes.

Slot denominations range from pennies to five bucks, so this isn’t necessarily going to be the place for you if you consider yourself a slots high roller.

In addition to all of that, you won’t have to worry if you used up all of your fuel getting there as this property is also home to a gas station.

This is another one of those Native American casinos that basically serves the same purpose that local casinos serve in commercial markets. It’s really not much different, aside from perhaps being smaller than most you are used to in other states. While it’s definitely not a destination unto itself, we definitely recommend checking it out if you’re passing through the area…decent hotel at reasonable rates, if for no other reason.

Royal River Casino and Hotel

Our final Native American casino property on this list, the Royal River Casino and Hotel is located in Flandreau, South Dakota and is owned and operated by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe.

The hotel mostly consists of pretty standard rooms and guests will enjoy complimentary access to wireless internet. Aside from that, they’re clean and pretty simply appointed, though we will say that they’re a bit more spacious than those of other hotels at the same price point.

The casino floor is one of the larger ones in the state, not that such means a whole lot. It’s home to 400 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines ranging in denomination from pennies to five-dollar bills. Table Games include Roulette, Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Mississippi Stud, Silverado Stud and Free Bet Blackjack. (Legitimately different from normal Blackjack) The property is also home to one Craps table.

River’s Bend Restaurant is a restaurant that serves all three and includes a buffet seven nights a week. The buffet also features a sizable dessert station. If buffets aren’t so much your thing, they have a reasonably sized menu that you can order from directly. If you’re looking for something even faster, the property is home to a snack bar with a number of grab and go type options.

The Royal Room is the property’s entertainment venue and can seat as many as 500 people. At the time of this writing (2020) all live entertainment events have been postponed until next year, which seems to only be the case in a few South Dakota casino properties…though it is the case in most other casinos around the country.

This is another one that’s mostly going to be a locals place and destination for a quick staycation, but it’s tough to recommend it as a landing spot if you have to go far to get there. As with the others, it’s definitely worth a look if you’re passing through the area, especially if you’re a slots player, as you’ll have more options available to you than at most other casinos in the state.

Silverado Hotel Franklin Historic Hotel, Gaming, Grand Buffet and Legends Steakhouse

The Silverado Hotel Franklin, for short, is located in Deadwood and what we listed as the header is the official name of this property. The only way it could get any longer is if they went ahead and also listed every single slot machine they have in the name. For our part, we’ll just hope the offerings live up to the length of the moniker.

Room types range from the oldest-school (and not in a good way) rooms I have ever seen still operating all the way up to sizable and well-adorned Victorian suites. We’re guessing that President Teddy Roosevelt (yes, he stayed at The Franklin when he was in town) stayed in one of the better ones. Still, if you’re not a terribly picky person and want to visit Deadwood at a dead cheap price, then this is absolutely your place.

Just check out the pictures on their website and you’ll see what I mean: The cheapest rooms have a steam heater. I didn’t know those still exist. If you’re chilly and you absolutely love high relative humidity, then you’ll be thrilled.

We hesitate to list individual promotions because it’s tough to tell how long they will last, but this property certainly has promotions aplenty. We recommend checking out their site for more information, but this also seems like a good place to gamble and eat if you’re on a budget.

The property’s casino floor is home to some 360 combined video poker, slot and video keno games. As a result, it turns out that the Mineral Palace claim to have the, “Most slots in Deadwood,” is not true and that title rightfully belongs to Silverado…though I doubt if they care. They’ll just avoid useless buzzwords and offer gamblers great value, instead.

Table Games include Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Three Card Poker, Let it Ride, Caribbean Stud, Four-Card Poker, Blackjack and Roulette. Of course, not all of these games are going to operate around the clock, so we suggest calling ahead for the typical hours of operation for your preferred game. It would seem, overall, that Silverado also has the most varied table game offerings in town.

The property is also home to a poker room that deals Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha High/Low. Additionally, it is this poker room that hosts the South Dakota State Poker Tournament.

The Legends Steakhouse is open every day for all three meals of the day and we would say that the prices are a little bit higher than your typical chain steakhouse (though not by much), but are totally justified by the quality of the meal. The Silverado Grand Buffet largely focuses on Steak and Sea and is a great value for gamblers, often, players can enjoy eating at the buffet for free after earning only a few points. They have different themed nights and offerings each night of the week and have been voted the best casino buffet in Deadwood.

Overall, we’d have to say that this is a must-stop if you are visiting Deadwood for the gambling. Basically, this is the house of great value for gamblers as well as some excellent food…so if you’ve been to Las Vegas, think of this like the Four Queens of Deadwood. That’s also true when it comes to the steeply discounted prices on some of the more basic room types compared to other hotels in town, so if you want to stay in Deadwood without breaking the bank, no question that you need not look any further than Silverado. 9/10—Highly Recommend. This place is basically everything that Buzzword Central—Mineral Palace—claims to be.

Tin Lizzie Gaming Resort

Located in Deadwood, Tin Lizzie wants to throw out that R-Word again, so let’s hope that it’s justified.

The first thing that we should mention is that this resort is technically not home to a hotel. Located on the 500 block of Main Street, there is a Hampton Inn a few doors down and across the street (which Tin Lizzie lists on their website), but that is technically a different property. There’s also a Sheraton slated to open in the Spring of 2021, but it seems that will not directly connect to the property, either.

Anyway, having a hotel, “Just a few steps away,” and having a hotel in the same building as the casino are not the same thing. Sometimes you just want it to be a matter of throwing on your shoes and taking the elevator downstairs, particularly during the winter months. For that reason, we simply cannot constitute these hotels as officially being part of the casino.

The casino floor is sizable enough, by Deadwood standards, but is certainly not amongst the largest in town. The property is home to 220 combined slot, video poker and video keno machines. The table games area is home to eight tables and spreads Blackjack, Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, Craps, Roulette, Mississippi Stud and Three-Card Poker. We would recommend calling ahead for the normal operating hours for your game of choice, especially considering that there’s only one of each table, with exception to Blackjack.

One area where this property does well is in having a varied selection of eateries, perhaps most notable is Paddy O’Neill’s Irish Pub and Grill. How, “Irish,” is the food? Not Irish at all. The only thing that is even remotely Irish is the name of the, “Dublin Reuben,” which is comprised of the same exact ingredients of literally any Reuben that you would find outside of Dublin. Oh well. At least it’s a theme. Lizzie Burgers does what it says on the sign, but also features hand-cut french fries as well as a soup and salad bar, which is nice enough.

Snitches is an upscale restaurant open only on certain nights of the week. The menu is actually limited to something like ten items…which is a very good sign, believe it or not. The appointment of this restaurant is very modern and elegant, bordering on garish. Prices are more than many other Deadwood locations, but are less than many similar eateries in other casinos around the country.

Finally, the property is also home to a Starbucks.

That about covers everything you’d need to know about this place, and since we recommend going to Deadwood, we also recommend at least stopping by and checking out Tin Lizzy. It’s worth it, especially if you’re planning on going to Snitches. As far as the gambling offerings are concerned, they don’t really have anything that most other places don’t, but perhaps you’ll enjoy the atmosphere…it’s decidedly more modern than the other Deadwood stops.

VFW (5969) Casino

What’s more Frontier than Veterans of Foriegn Wars having their own casino? Totally fitting and awesome, if you ask me. Besides that, many VFW locations in the, “Parlor states,” will have commercial video lottery terminals at their locations in those states, so this is hardly unusual for them.

Anyway, there’s not much to this one—eighteen machines and that about covers it.

Conclusion

After several attempts, sports betting legislation finally passed the state House and Senate. That legislation does not make sports betting legal in Deadwood, but what it does do is toss the question to whom it should really belong—the voters. On November 3rd, as part of the general ballot, voters will get to decide whether or not sports betting would be legal in the state.

If you’re reading this and live in (or know someone who does) South Dakota, then this writer strongly encourages you to vote YES on this measure. If someone doesn’t want to bet sports, then there’s nothing that would force them to do so, therefore, a YES vote does nothing more than allow people who want to do something to do it. (If you’re reading this after November, 2020, let’s hope they succeeded!)

By extension, since Deadwood will be allowed to have it, the compact with the state would seem to indicate that the Native American casinos spread throughout South Dakota will also be given the option. Given the size of most of Deadwood’s casinos, we think that sports betting kiosks are going to be more likely in most of the establishments than full-on sportsbooks, but the Native American casinos shouldn’t have any trouble (in most cases) incorporating live sports betting into the bingo rooms, or perhaps just have them handle it at the cage.

We don’t really expect online gambling to be legalized and regulated in the state anytime soon (if ever) because there hasn’t been a Legislative push in that regard, or at least not a meaningful one, anytime recently.

Overall, we consider that the state has a positive attitude towards all types of casino gambling, provided any such activity is confined either to Deadwood, Native American casinos or the well over 1,000 locations that have Video Lottery Terminal machines…the last probably being because the state knows where the money is. If you live in South Dakota, be happy if you’re a gambler, because you could be doing a lot worse.

For visitors to the state, it’s difficult to recommend any ONE casino specifically to base a trip around, but we must recommend a visit to Deadwood. Maybe spend a night at several different casinos. We strongly recommend stopping at the Silverado if you’re a value gambler as it also has great food offers associated with the earning of very few points. We’d also recommend several stops for historical reasons, most notably Saloon No. 10.

It’s not often you get to combine gambling with an interesting history lesson, but now’s your chance. Just make sure to keep your eyes open if you find yourself holding Dead Man’s Hand.

References

• South Dakota Commission on Gaming
• South Dakota Lottery
• South Dakota Tourism – Casinos

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