Pandemic be damned, people in the United States are going to gamble and the numbers in many parts of the midwest are proving that theory correct.

The state of South Dakota is seeing a similar trend for revenue in their gambling hot spot of Deadwood.

When comparing November of 2019 to November of 2020, Deadwood saw a increase of over 13% in total bets and a overall taxable revenue of over $7 million according to a report from the South Dakota Gaming Commission.

The COVID-19 pandemic wrecked havoc on the gaming industry world wide in the first part of 2020, but some have been able to bounce back nicely including Deadwood.

Even with the ramifications of the pandemic, they are only down around 4% in revenue at this point from 2019 according to a statement provided to Keloland from the Executive Director of the Deadwood Gaming Association.

Over Thanksgiving, I was out in the Black Hills with my wife and kids and we stopped in Deadwood for some ice cream and it was very busy and really you wouldn't have known a pandemic was going on.

Everywhere we went into had patrons and the parking ramp along with the streets had plenty of traffic.

Throw into the mix the future of sports betting in Deadwood after the measure was passed in November, things could be looking up for the city moving forward well into the future.

For more information on gaming in South Dakota as well as statistics and revenue figures, you can visit the South Dakota Gaming Commission website.


 

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