There's a certain charm in downtown Deadwood a charm that's now looking to bring in some big gamblers! With casinos now able to set bet limits of up to one-thousand dollars players seem to be calling not folding.

Brad Hemmah, general manager of the Deadwood Mountain Grand, says, "A lot of our regulars are coming in to play those tables. They were waiting for this increase to happen and so we got a good response." Overall, casinos say their business has been up these past two weeks and it's not just at the Deadwood Mountain Grand.

Managers of Cadillac Jacks and The Celebrity Hotel and Gaming say gambling has been up at their establishments. The Celebrity Hotel seeing increases, even though managers say they didn't raise their bet limits. Casino managers say it comes at a good time as a fairly recent statewide smoking ban caused a hit in business and the lower limit restrictions had some gamblers looking to spend their money elsewhere.

Hemmah says, "A lot of these players play in Las Vegas. I mean we have flights coming in and going out of Rapid City all the time, several times a week, and you know, they're playing in Las Vegas. Now they can play closer to home." But the target player isn't just the local player. With the new limits, Deadwood may now be a little more appealing to out-of-state visitors who are looking to test Lady Luck.

Hemmah says, "We plan on advertising in many of the larger cities around the region and further out like Houston and Phoenix and other areas that we've never advertised in before." Managers stress the increase is still new but many say they're cautiously optimistic it could permanently bring in some big business.

Zach Nugent