The South Dakota Commission on Gaming approved a revised set of rules Tuesday to transition to the legalization of sports gambling in Deadwood beginning July 1.

The new guidelines now head for a hearing before the state Legislature's Interim Rules Review Committee in June before becoming active.

In November 2020, South Dakota voters approved Constitutional Amendment B, which authorized the Legislature to enact a law allowing sports wagering in Deadwood. Under federal law, the amendment also extends to Native American casinos in the state.

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 44 as the will of the voters, and Gov. Kristi Noem signed sports betting into law on March 18, but the law doesn't go into effect until July 1.

The Commission on Gaming met Tuesday in Deadwood and also via video conference to approve the rules. The amendments made include a $5,000 application fee for sports wagering service providers.

Gaming Commission Attorney Douglas Abraham said applications will be available on the commission's website Friday, but will not be approved until July 1.

Other amendments added language to existing rules for inspecting records for sports wagering equipment, prohibiting suppliers of the equipment from gambling on the sports betting equipment, or from manufacturing slot machines. The rules also added sports betting to the list of gaming allowed in Deadwood.

Another amendment was offered during the meeting to define how the adjusted gross revenue for sports betting would be tabulated. The amendment was offered on behalf of the Deadwood Gaming Association to clarify that "free play" rewards and federal excise tax would be deducted from reported revenue figures.

The Commission on Gaming also addressed a "clean up" of language for rules pertaining to irregularities in blackjack, the posting of rules in casinos for blackjack and house-banked poker, and removed language related to videotape closed-circuit surveillance systems.

The commission said casinos no longer use videotape surveillance systems. Instead, all casinos now use digital closed-circuit surveillance systems, making the previous rules outdated.

According to reports, this is the first of two meetings for the Commission on Gaming to devise rules related to sports gambling. Another meeting will be held after July 1 to focus on the technical rules for wagering.

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