- Deadwood’s two reporting craps tables held 26.96% of July’s wagers, against 15.73% for blackjack.
- Craps won $170,614 in July on just two tables, more than four times blackjack’s per-table win.
- Craps produced nearly 12% of Deadwood’s $1.43 million table-game win from 2.4% of its reporting tables.
- Statewide gaming handle reached $173.3 million in July, up 4.05% from a year earlier.
DEADWOOD, S.D. – The craps hold at Deadwood’s casinos reached 26.96% in July, well above blackjack’s 15.73%, on just two tables statewide, according to the South Dakota Department of Revenue’s July gaming statistics report.
A Hold Rate Outlier
Craps held 26.96 cents of every dollar wagered against Deadwood’s tables in July, well above blackjack’s 15.73%, house-banked poker’s 15.89% and roulette’s 17.28%, the state’s July report shows. For a player working one of the two live tables that make up legal craps in South Dakota, less of every dollar in play came back over the course of the month than at any other game on the floor – blackjack and poker returned close to 84 cents on the dollar in July, craps returned 73.
Two Tables Carry An Outsized Share
Only two of Deadwood’s 82 reporting table-game units were craps games in July, against 34 blackjack tables and 29 house-banked poker tables. Despite that scarcity, craps produced $170,614 of the state’s $1.43 million in total table-game win – nearly 12% of the total from 2.4% of the tables.
Win per table came to $85,307 for craps, more than four times blackjack’s $20,511 per table and nearly six times house-banked poker’s $14,825 per table, the department’s figures show. The two-table footprint is a quirk of Deadwood’s small floor; legal online craps faces no such table limit.
The Rest Of The Floor
Slot machines produced the bulk of Deadwood’s action, $163.9 million in handle for a 4.20% year-over-year gain, and total gaming handle across slots, tables and sports wagering reached $173.3 million, up 4.05%. Sports wagering was the only category to fall, down 13.44% from a year earlier to $458,839 in handle. Deadwood’s calendar-year handle through July stands at just over $1 billion, up 8.63% from the same span in 2025, the report’s year-to-date figures show.
Where The Tax Goes
South Dakota taxed July’s $15.8 million in adjusted gross gaming revenue at 9%, collecting $1.42 million.
Of that, 1% ($158,179) went to the State General Fund and the remaining 8% ($1.27 million) was distributed under South Dakota Codified Law 42-7B-48 – 40% to state tourism promotion, 10% to Lawrence County, home to Deadwood’s casinos, and the balance to the commission’s own fund. Lawrence County’s share came to $126,544 for the month.