PIERRE (AP) - A social advocacy group plans to lobby against a measure in the upcoming legislative session to authorize three new games in Deadwood and at tribal casinos that voters approved in November.
Family Heritage Alliance Action executive director Dale Bartscher said on Friday the nonprofit's board unanimously agreed this month to oppose the legislation. He said the organization will be urging lawmakers in January not to authorize the new games, which 57 percent of voters supported Nov. 4 as part of Amendment Q.
Casinos and residents of Deadwood hope the proposed games - keno, craps and roulette - will attract a new breed of gambler to the city: a younger audience, or at least one that may have traveled to Colorado or Iowa before to play the games. Opponents argue gambling expansions provoke addictions and cause social and financial problems for families in the state.
"This is nothing more, nothing more than addiction by design," Bartscher said. "The Legislature has the opportunity to say, 'No more.'"
The new, voter-backed games are expected to hit the town in July if lawmakers agree to approve them, and they're aimed at making Deadwood more competitive with the glut of gambling destinations available across the country. Deadwood Mayor Chuck Turbiville and Deadwood Gaming Association executive director Mike Rodman, who championed the voter initiative, said Friday that they always anticipated Family Heritage Alliance Action would lobby lawmakers against the enabling legislation.
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"We're onward and upward, as they say," Turbiville said.
The new games represent "the will of the people," he said, and they would be good for South Dakota.
But Bartscher said plenty of lawmakers represent the 43 percent of voters who cast their ballot against Amendment Q, and that other legislators should take a second look at the facts when it comes to the consequences of gambling, which is one of many issues that the group focuses on.
"I don't think you should take the legislators for granted, that they're going to simply pass it," he said.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Tim Rave, R-Baltic, said the legislation would be one of the more interesting debates lawmakers have this session. It's too early to say what will happen over the course of the session, he said, but he called voter approval of the ballot measure less of a mandate and more "direction on the will of the people."
Incoming House Speaker Dean Wink, R-Howes, declined to comment on the measure until he saw the language of the bill.
