Legal Gambling Is a Bonanza For Deadwood

The take has surpassed everyone’s expectations in the year since slot machines and card games became legal in this Black Hills town where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down in an 1876 poker game.

Actors dressed as Hickok and Calamity Jane will fire guns on Main Street at noon today to celebrate the first anniversary.

A statewide vote in 1988 amended the South Dakota Constitution to authorize gambling in Deadwood. The Legislature limited bets to $5.

State and city officials had estimated that Deadwood’s share of gambling taxes and license fees would provide the city with about $500,000 a year to restore aging buildings. But the city has received $6.2 million as its cut of the first year’s action.

Gambling taxes have also contributed nearly $786,000 to the state and more than $196,000 to Lawrence County.

During the first 11 months, players wagered more than $253 million and about 75 gaming houses were licensed. Don Gromer, executive secretary of the state Gaming Commission, said officials had expected only about 20 gaming halls.

The gambling industry has created about 1,400 jobs in Deadwood. Industry executives estimate that casinos have already spent more than $30 million to renovate historic downtown structures.

Success has had its price, however.

State and city officials have scrambled to keep tabs on the rapid growth, which has strained water and sewer systems in the narrow city built in a canyon. Retail stores have nearly disappeared from Main Street as buildings have been converted into a long stretch of casinos to handle crowds of gamblers.

Success has also brought a faster-paced lifestyle to what was a quiet, uncrowded town.

Mayor Bruce Oberlander said many people are upset that it is no longer easy to find motel rooms, parking spots and uncrowded bars when they visit Deadwood. But they do not realize that the businesses were struggling to survive before gambling, he said.

Franklin Hotel owner Bill Walsh said people who mourn the loss of the old Deadwood are holding a wake for the wrong corpse. The city’s best period was the boom times of the frontier or the early years of this century, not the recent years.