Every licensed gambling house in Deadwood, South Dakota will have to put processes in place to watch for illegal activity and prevent compulsive people from betting, due to new legislation.
The processes put in place are part of a package of regulations from the South Dakota Commission on Gaming and were approved by the Legislature’s Rules Review Committee.
One of the proposed rules regarded how minors should be monitored in gambling areas; however, this topic was withdrawn after talks with Deadwood casino personnel.
During talks, the commission’s Deputy Executive Secretary Mark Heltzel commented: "We just followed suit and tried to offer that to our customers. We never had a specific incident where we felt we needed to raise that concern."
The regulations will require that each casino’s plan receive approval from the commission’s Executive Secretary, Susan Christian. In addition to that, each casino will report monthly to her office patrons who have voluntarily excluded themselves.
These requirements could be due to the fact that several Deadwood casinos have been hit with violations since sports wagering began last fall.
The new "patron protection" regulations outline requirements that every casino must follow. This includes mechanisms allowing patrons to detect unauthorized use of their accounts, and methods of resolving disputes between patrons and casinos.
Casinos are also required to "promptly notify" the commission in regard to anyone caught or suspected of misrepresenting their identity or using a false identity in an attempt to open or access a patron account.
Any criminal or disciplinary proceedings commenced against the casino in connection with sports wagering operations must also be reported to the commission.