Members of the South Dakota State Lottery Commission are proposing an update of the state’s video lottery program. Officials presented a study to the Senate Commerce Committee today that recommends various changes.
Norm Lingle is the Executive Director of the South Dakota Lottery. He says the study recommends decreasing the state’s share of net machine income for investment in new terminals, and increasing the number of terminals allowed for each casino from 10 to 15. Lingle says other suggestions range from increasing the maximum bet limit and awards, to finding ways to share individual game performance numbers with operators.
"The South Dakota gaming landscape is significantly more competitive and advancing with greater speed every day," says Lingle. "We as a lottery have some opportunity for organic growth but the greater opportunity to grow our market share and our share of the gaming wallet is the ability to compete with the competitive set. And when I say competitive set I’m talking like Deadwood or the tribal casinos or the border casinos as well."
Lingle says the study which was conducted by Union Gaming shows in Fiscal Year 2002 video lottery accounted for roughly 60% of all the gaming revenue in South Dakota. But In Fiscal Year 2012, video lottery had 42% share of the revenue. Over that same time period Deadwood’s share increased by 6% and the tribal casinos’ share increased by 10%.