Legal Online Poker For South Dakota Residents
South Dakota has adopted a permissive stance towards gambling. The approach is more or less in line with how the rest of the country deals with it – gambling is allowed in approved locations, and nowhere else. Read on to learn when and where you are allowed to play poker as a South Dakota resident.
Is Poker Legal In South Dakota?
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South Dakota limits the use of Internet poker sites to those who aren't involved in a gambling business – that is, don't own offline casinos or work for one. In other words, if you are not affiliated with any online or offline gambling venue, you may safely play poker online.
Legal Online Poker Sites For South Dakota Residents
There are many legal Internet poker rooms that accept players from South Dakota. A lot of them, however, are a complete waste of time, and weeding out the low quality ones will take you lots of time. We have done all the work for you – we played at most casinos out there and built a list of the best ones.
Bovada Poker is by far our top preference. They offer an amazing 100% bonus for new deposits capped at $1,000 – in other words, you can deposit $1,000 and receive twice as much in your bankroll. The interface is straightforward, user-friendly and easy to use, so if you have ever played poker online before you will figure it out right from the start. The customer support is enthusiastic and you can truly feel that they are there to help you.
Much like South Dakota, the poker room at SportsBetting is a land of mystery and promise. Any new poker players in the state looking to find a reliable and often times overlooked site will rejoice that they have found SportsBetting. Many people love this legal South Dakota poker room because they have two ways to play and in the end having choices is the only way in which they could have made the site so welcoming to players of all levels.
As it stands, SportsBetting is the most successful site when it comes to ease of access and variety of players. The sit and go tables are where the most players inhabit and it is a world of money games and happening again and again, meaning the money rarely stops flowing. In addition to this the tables are filled with players of all levels of skill making it one of the most interesting rooms in poker. Next is the guaranteed cash tournaments, where the big names, and big players gather. It can get intimidating for new players but any player who is confident in their poker prowess is sure to enjoy the challenge presented by the huge weekly tournaments at SportsBetting.
Online poker is just now gaining prominence in much of the U.S. and to many South Dakota players, it is a way for them to branch out from their local, and likely illegal or small unprofitable, scenes and really start honing their skills and filling their wallets against players from around the states. The most preferred site for residents of South Dakota so far has been BetOnline, with more than half of the new players in South Dakota saying BetOnline was their first choice.
Many people when asked why they chose BetOnline point to the great welcome bonus that is often times too good to turn down. Unlike other sites that give you a bonus of equal or often lesser value, BetOnline gives bettors back 200% of what they deposited effectively leaving new players with three-times their initial deposits. The only requirement of this bonus is that the player play poker in order to unlock bit by bit of the bonus. Any experienced online player knows that this is nothing to sneeze at and a bonus like this could be what helps new players really get the momentum they need early in their online career. Any resident of South Dakota hoping to have a long and prosperous relationship with online betting should look into BetOnline.
Playing home poker is not legal in South Dakota. The state's Criminal Code states that the players, as well as the host of such a game, are guilty of a Class II misdemeanor. The law doesn't make a difference on whether the host is making a profit from the game or just volunteering to invite a couple of friends in the living room.
Nevertheless, there are strong communities of poker players in South Dakota who schedule such home games periodically. It would be trivial for authorities to find them (times, dates and locations are posted on public websites), but it's quite obvious that law enforcement agencies are not after poker players.
Is it Legal to play Land Based Poker in South Dakota?
Throughout most of the state of South Dakota it is illegal to own or operate a building in which gambling in any form including poker is played for profit. Under this law even home games would technically be considered illegal, however, they aren’t the target of the law or its enforcement. Poker players should also rejoice that the actual act of playing poker in South Dakota is not outlawed meaning they can still play wherever they like and won’t be held accountable by the law.
Where things get interesting is the city of Deadwood. Under South Dakota law, there is limited gambling allowed in the city of Deadwood. This may be because Deadwood is the site of several casinos, but either way poker players living near Deadwood may want to consider a trip there for their poker needs. Still as mentioned above playing at home is perfectly safe as authorities won’t spend time or money taking down poker games among friends. It needs to be stated though that taking any form of commission or fee from players is dangerous even if among colleagues from work, as this is normally the distinction between a friendly game and a game at an illegal poker room.
The primary way to play poker in Deadwood is at the casinos. While there are other options for playing in the town due to the limited card game section, the casino will probably have the largest pot and diversity of players. In the end where in South Dakota a person lives may be the ultimate determinant of where they prefer to bet.
Legal Land Based Poker Rooms in South Dakota
In South Dakota a poker player actually has quite a few options for playing poker for money. Deadwood is the place to be if you want to play for some real money with two different casinos vying for patrons. The Lodge and Silverado Casino. Both have plenty of poker tournaments going on and offer a few different buy-ins across their tournaments. For those playing to win big The Lodge is the bigger of the two with their highest buy-in being $110 dollars. By comparison, Silverado doesn’t have as many tournaments or as high of payout. They still have a respectable buy-in of $88 dollars at most.
Those that don’t live near Deadwood or maybe want to try their hand at something other than no-limit hold ’em are better off playing at home or seeing if Deadwood has other poker rooms. The casinos main attraction is the money one can win. Those playing for the game may want to just do home games so they can play how they want. These games are unlikely to get busted up by the police as long as no other illegal activities are taking place and no money other than the money won during the game is collected from the players. As mentioned above when playing at home with friends the options for how to play are limitless. The only real downside is that at home the pots are going to be much smaller unless the game is being played by corporate big wigs, but then, the charges for the misdemeanor probably won’t bother them much anyway.
Note: The information presented herein mustn't be considered counseling about playing legal poker online – we are not legal representatives, but rather poker players from South Dakota who want to share some of our knowledge on the legality of playing poker in our state. Should you at any point need further information or just another opinion, please consult with a lawyer or contact the authorities in your area.
