Luckiest Casinos in the State of South Dakota

Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, and the majestic Missouri River are probably what springs to mind when you think about South Dakota. But believe it or not, there are 35 brick-and-mortar casinos in the state, and they’re all located in the former mining town of Deadwood.

There are around 10 casinos in South Dakota that are built on Native American land and governed by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). 

The casinos are owned by a mix of North Dakota and South Dakota tribes, and they’re open for anyone to play, as long as you're of legal gambling age.

There are over 6,000 slot machines in South Dakota casinos, and the state has some unique laws. For example, you can’t place a single wager over $1,000, and don’t forget that you have to report any winnings of over $600 to IRS.

Gambling in the state of South Dakota dates back to the days of the gold rush, and it has never really declined in popularity—although it was outright banned from 1905 to 1989! Gambling revenue in the state was a huge $147.6 million in 2023, up 3.3% from the previous year, and the sector employs a little under 5,000 people. 

With so many options for gambling in South Dakota, we decided to go in search of the luckiest casino, so that you can give it a go when you’re in the area. We analyzed reviews, and looked out for words like "luck,"  "lucky,"  and “handpay”, to see which casinos have the best payouts. 

We checked out and ranked these casinos:

We should probably put a disclaimer here, and remind you that just because a few lucky souls had big wins at these casinos, doesn’t mean you will too, as slots are based on Random Number Generators, so they’re always fair, and slots at one casino aren’t necessarily “hotter” than at another. 

But enough about that, let’s get to the good stuff. 

Drumroll, please…

We found that Gold Dust Casino is the luckiest place to play in South Dakota! 

The casino’s “Luck Percentage” (a Real Scientific Measurement created by the casinos.com team) sits at a whopping 28.57%, compared with the lowest on the list (Deadwood Mountain Grand, we’ll get to that later), which has a Luck Percentage of 9.03%. 

But don’t take our word for it; one reviewer wrote, “I won over 500% of the money I put in the first 1 cent machine I tried.”

In second place, we have Cadillac Jack's Gaming Resort, with a Luck Percentage of 21.74%. This casino had the most mentions of the word "won,"  and quite a few people also called out the jackpot prizes. 

Rounding out the top three, Mineral Palace Casino bagged a respectable 16.54% on the luck scale. It’s located on the historic Main Street in Deadwood, so you’ll get the feel of being part of the gold rush, as you try to bag yourself a win.

Of course, it can’t all be good news for South Dakota casino fans. We want to let you know about the good, the bad, and the ugly of playing casino games in the state, and trust us, there’s some "ugly.”

Ranking second to last on our list was the good old First Gold Hotel and Gaming, with a 9.70% Luck Percentage. 

Overall, the reviews of the actual hotel and dining options are pretty good, but sadly, only one person out of 134 mentioned the word "luck.”. Even worse, there were no mentions of “success” or "jackpot,"  so we probably wouldn’t recommend this as a place to earn your fortune.

Finally, right at the bottom of the list is Deadwood Mountain Grand, with 9.03%. In the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t make it much more unlucky than First Gold, but a recent review says, “Do not gamble here! I spent 30 years playing in Vegas and Deadwood and had the most crooked experience ever.” Ouch. 

But if you’ve already booked your trip, don’t worry too much, the overall experience still gets 4/5 stars on TripAdvisor.

Methodology

Casinos.com utilized Trip Advisor reviews to do an in-depth analysis of phrases associated with luck to determine the luckiest and unluckiest casinos in the state of South Dakota. We calculated the percentage of luck-rated mentions in the total Trip Advisor reviews and extrapolated them as if all casinos had the same number of reviews for fairness.

Keywords tracked: Lucky, Luck, Winning, Big Win, Winner, Bonus, Profit, Success, Jackpot, Hand Pay

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