SD/NE STATELINE – Rosebud Casino was shuttered over the New Year holiday when an electrical panel blew up and disconnected all power to most areas of the facility.
Tribal officials initially requested to be off the air from the live YouTube stream to hear the report on the casino. However, council members insisted on a live stream to allow the people to hear about the damage the facility suffered.
“Well, I can give it to you in one sentence – your casino is dead,” stated Ken LaDeaux, General Manager at the Rosebud Casino. He spoke at a special tribal council meeting. “Initially when the power first went out it was an electrical panel that blew up. The person who was resetting the switch is lucky to be alive.”
“Everything we are dealing with [at Rosebud Casino] is high voltage electricity,” LaDeaux continued. Most of the areas of the facility were without internet, power and heat.
The casino accounting systems, surveillance systems and gaming floor were all inoperable during the power outage. The fuel plaza and hotel also had to close their doors because there was no internet to power the point-of-sale stations in those departments. Both the plaza and hotel were open at the time of the electrical damages report to the tribal council.
A post on the Rosebud Casino Facebook page on December 28 announced the closure of the facility. The
post was updated on New Year’s Eve and stated “The Rosebud Casino, Hotel, and Fuel Plaza are still
closed. We encourage you to visit Prairie Hills Casino & Golf Course during our main facility’s downtime.”
An update to Facebook on January 2 read “As we continue to navigate through the aftermath of the electrical overload. . .we want to provide you with the latest updates and developments. Our dedicated team has been working tirelessly to identify and rectify the cause of the overload. We have determined that a couple of faulty transformers were at the heart of the issue. Procuring these specific parts and conducting the necessary repairs has, unfortunately, extended the timeframe of our temporary closure.”
Rosebud Casino opened its doors in August 1994 with a small deli, two restrooms, a cage and a few slot machines. The facility operates under a compact with the State of South Dakota. Today, the casino is allowed up to one thousand slot machines.
The casino staff worked hard to repair the damage to reopen the facility on January 4. New Year’s Eve promotions were held on January 6. For more information, visit the Rosebud Casino Facebook page.
Sicangu News 
You must be logged in to post a comment.