A South Dakota gaming oversight commission adopted a policy to stop patrons from communicating via electronic devices while playing table games in Deadwood.
Executive Secretary of South Dakota’s Commission on Gaming Larry Eliason says the commission is making the move because there is currently no official policy regarding the use of electronic devices while playing table games – instead it has been left up to the house rules of individual casinos.
“We are always concerned about the protection of the integrity of the games. In March the commission hired a table-games-in-casino-security consultant to advise us how we can strengthen our enforcement and he proposed that we not allow players at tables to have communication devices because of the possibility that they could be using that device to communicate with another player at the same table and in effect have collusive play. In other words one person says to the other 'I’m just bluffing' or 'I’m holding two aces' or whatever – that’s the kind of communication that we want to stop,” says Eliason.
While the new policy pertains to communicating by electronic devices, Eliason says that many establishments in Deadwood also have rules against taking photos inside casinos which he says can potentially compromise casino security and the privacy of patrons.