Gambling in South Dakota: Top Online Sites, History & Gaming Laws

For all its historic landmarks, open landscapes, and frontier living, South Dakota is very much a modern state. Many forms of gambling are legal (or, at least, unregulated) in the state. The information in

the box below is designed to quickly bring you up to speed on some of the basics of South Dakota’s betting industry. Before we go into greater detail on the legalities of various forms of gambling in the state, we think it’s important to offer some perspective, and we do that by sharing some crucial numbers with you.

South Dakota is home to nearly two dozen casinos, a number of OTB betting parlors for pari-mutuel wagering, a few racetracks, and a somewhat popular lottery. The state also allows charitable gambling, and South Dakota is home to one of the most liberal sets of social gaming laws in the country. The information below is an educational analysis of South Dakota gambling law. We aren’t lawyers. If you need real legal advice on the subject, consult a South Dakota lawyer with experience in gaming.

The state of South Dakota defines the word gambling like this:

The state’s criminal code then spends a few thousand words listing exceptions.

Below is a guide to what wagers are legal and illegal by South Dakota’s code of law:

Both tribal and commercial venues operate inside South Dakota. A major tourist destination in the form of the historic city of Deadwood is little more than a casino gambling hotspot with a couple of restaurants thrown in for good measure. Currently, the state is home to 45 casinos of varying size. Due to existing gaming laws, these venues are allowed to host slots, blackjack games, live poker, and casino-style poker games. You won’t find games like roulette, craps, keno, bingo, or video poker in South Dakota’s casinos.

The operation of “limited-stakes” card games and slot machines has been legalized in recent years. This allows smaller businesses, like bars and clubs, to host slots and poker tournaments provided players don’t wager more than $50 on any one outcome.

Social (or “private”) gambling games are implicitly illegal within SD state lines. The state moved to legalize and regulate games like head to head poker and blackjack, but no exception was ever made for games played privately in the home. We looked back through the past fifty years or so of the state’s history and couldn’t find a single instance of a South Dakota citizen being arrested for playing in a private gambling game, so we doubt that the lack of an exception for private gaming bears much weight.

As if often the case in America, pari-mutuel wagering is somewhat unrestricted, with dozens of tracks and OTB betting sites spread across the state. If you’re headed to South Dakota and you’re interested in some racing action, be warned that the tracks only operate full-time in the summer. These tracks are especially popular during tourist season – July and August.

“Qualified charitable organizations” are allowed by the state government to operate bingo and lottery games in order to raise money. These games are legal as long as the proceeds do not go to an individual who works for the organization. Though only lottery and bingo games are available for play at these charitable events, the maximum prize amount of $2,000 set by the state is generous compared to other American charity gaming laws. Qualified charitable organizations are defined as

Online gambling is explicitly illegal in South Dakota – for some citizens.

The Mount Rushmore State passed a law about a decade ago called Chapter 22-25A. This law makes it illegal for “those in the gambling business” to place online wagers. This is a serious law that prescribes a stiff felony charge for any casino employee or operator who places an online wager.

We believe this law against the practice of online gambling by “those in the gambling business” is a tactic approval of the practice of online gambling for anyone who is NOT in the gambling business. If you want a legitimate legal opinion on this defense, we recommend you contact a legal professional familiar with South Dakota gaming regulations.

If a person were convicted under this law, the penalty is a fine not to exceed $10,000 and an optional prison sentence of no more than one year. Considering that the penalty in the state for simple gambling is a $50 fine and no jail sentence, it’s clear that state lawmakers wanted gambling operators completely out of the online gambling business, while regular citizens are all but passed over when it comes time to penalize for illicit gaming.

South Dakota’s legislature hasn’t moved to outlaw the practice of online gambling. Lawmakers have also recently avoided an outright attack on the DFS industry, preferring to attempt to collect what it calls “civil remedies” instead of a financial punishment. What does this mean for South Dakota gamblers? If you do your wagering online, and if you’re doing business with an offshore sportsbook or other gambling site, you’re not in any danger of prosecution. No gamblers in South Dakota have ever been charged with a crime related to placing an online bet, and we don’t think that will change anytime soon without additional legislation.