On this page 5 sections
South Dakota borders six states and not one of them holds a placement. Only Wyoming and Utah share that position in this record — six neighbours, six blank rows — which makes the three of them the most isolated states in the dataset.
Figures below come from the 87 signed listings open on PinPoint Vending’s marketplace on October 5, 2026, covering 29 states. Traffic is venue-reported and unaudited; no listing reports sales.
By the numbers
| Measure | South Dakota |
|---|---|
| Signed placements | 0 |
| States with none | 21 of 50 |
| Bordering states | 6 |
| Bordering states with placements | 0 |
| Nearest states with placements | Wisconsin 7, Kansas 2 |
| National median share | 40% of net |
The three most isolated states in the record
Isolation here means something specific: a state whose every neighbour is also blank.
| State | Bordering states | Placements among them |
|---|---|---|
| South Dakota | 6 — ND, MN, IA, NE, WY, MT | 0 |
| Wyoming | 6 — MT, ID, UT, CO, NE, SD | 0 |
| Utah | 6 — ID, WY, CO, NM, AZ, NV | 0 |
| North Dakota | 3 — MT, SD, MN | 0 |
| Montana | 4 — ID, WY, ND, SD | 0 |
Five states in the lower 48 have no placement in any bordering state, and three of them have six borders to be empty across. South Dakota sits in the middle of that block, inside the contiguous region of fourteen empty states that runs from Oregon to Minnesota and down to New Mexico.
Alaska and Hawaii are the only blanks with a published explanation, sitting outside the declared coverage. Everything in the northern plains is blank without one.
How wide the gap is
Wide enough that the nearest placements are not usefully near. Wisconsin’s seven sit east of Minnesota; Kansas’s two sit south of Nebraska. Between them, the record covers nothing.
| Direction from Sioux Falls | Nearest placement |
|---|---|
| East | Wisconsin, two states away |
| South | Kansas, two states away |
| West | Washington or California, four states away |
| North | Nothing until the border |
So a South Dakota venue has no regional comparison in the sense that a Rhode Island venue does — Rhode Island’s nearest listing is 50 miles away, and South Dakota’s is several hundred. On Census Bureau estimates South Dakota is also among the least populous states, which makes an empty row close to what population alone predicts.
The Dakotas are a matched pair with opposite rules
North and South Dakota both return nothing, and they regulate the machine in completely different ways — which is the clearest available demonstration that licensing design and placement counts are unrelated.
| North Dakota | South Dakota | |
|---|---|---|
| Operator or machine licence | A state licence per machine, $40 a year | None |
| Operating unlicensed | Unlawful | — |
| Other filing | — | A sales tax licence per location |
| Food service licence | — | $140 a year, or $70 from 1 July |
| Signed placements | 0 | 0 |
One state makes every machine a separate application and the other makes every venue a separate tax filing. Both have the same number of placements, which is none. Beyond the South Dakota row, the full distribution sits in what the revenue-share data shows across all 87 placements.
What the zero cannot be read as
Three readings the data will not carry. The record captures one locator’s signatures in a single 2026 season.
- Not an absence of venues. Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen and Brookings hold bowling alleys, trampoline parks and indoor playgrounds — three of the four categories supplying 44 of the 87 national placements.
- Not a licensing effect. North Dakota’s much stricter regime produces the same zero.
- Not a coverage decision. South Dakota carries no statement of the kind attached to Alaska and Hawaii.
What a first South Dakota placement would settle
The first measurable venue in a very large gap. Between Wisconsin and the Pacific states, and between Kansas and the Canadian border, this record contains nothing at all — so a single Sioux Falls listing would be the only data point in a region roughly 600 miles across. Whether it could be ranked would depend on its category, since only five of the 26 venue types carry a published visit length in our ranking of vending locations.
It would also test the thing the northern plains raise and nothing answers: whether a long indoor season in a thinly populated state supports the same terms as a long indoor season in a dense one. Vending machine locations by state shows where each state stands.
Frequently asked questions
How many vending machine placements does South Dakota have?
None. South Dakota is one of 21 states with no signed venue in the record collected on October 5, 2026, which covers 87 placements across 29 states.
How isolated is that?
As isolated as the dataset gets. All six bordering states are empty, which is true of only three states — South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah.
Where is the nearest placement?
Wisconsin, with seven, and Kansas with two. Both are two states away from most of South Dakota.
Do the Dakotas differ in any recorded way?
Only in licensing design. North Dakota licenses each machine at $40 a year; South Dakota has no operator licence but requires a sales tax licence per location. Both report zero placements.
What would a first South Dakota placement establish?
The first measurable venue in a 600-mile-wide gap. Nothing between Wisconsin and the Rockies, or between Kansas and Canada, has been signed.
