TRIBAL CASINOS STILL PAVE THE WAY FOR LEGAL SPORTS BETTING IN NEW MEXICO

Dave Schwab Casino Expert

3 minute read

New Mexico has always been a progressive state for legal gaming. There are a total of 21 tribal casinos along with six racetracks offering casino games. This was the sixth state in the US to offer legal sports betting.

This state went live with legal sports betting in October of 2018. This was five months following that landmark decision by the US Supreme Court. This is when states were given the right to govern and regulate sports betting within their borders.

While retail sports betting is legal in New Mexico, the current laws in place still prohibit online sportsbooks. The minimum age to legally bet on sports in this state is 21.

Although there is a state-wide tribal casino industry, only four locations actually offer a retail sportsbook. This is tied to specific wording in their tribal gaming compacts.

Two of those retail books are located in Albuquerque as the state’s most populated city. Another book is in Santa Fe and the fourth retail venue is located in Mescalero. The Santa Ana Star in Albuquerque was the first legal retail sportsbook in New Mexico.

The latest retail book in Albuquerque is Isleta Resort & Casino. Utilizing a modern design, this sportsbook closely resembles the type of retail operation that sports bettors would find in Las Vegas.

The other two gaming venues with sports betting are The Sportsbook At The Inn Of The Mountain Gods and Hilton Buffalo Thunder Sportsbook.

State lawmakers continue to propose legislative changes to the current system. Some bills are aimed at expanding the retail footprint to cover more of the state. There have also been attempts to introduce legislation that would allow online betting through mobile sportsbook apps.

The most recent attempts in 2021 gained some traction. However, nothing concrete came from any of those efforts. You can expect to see a renewed push to update the current sports betting laws in next year’s legislative session.

One of the issues at hand is the tribal gaming compact in place. The four tribal casinos offering legal betting have used their existing compacts as a means to operate. The state has yet to launch any licensed sports betting operations outside of the current system in place.

To date, no legislation in New Mexico has been passed to allow legal sports betting. The Indian Gaming Compacts dating back to 1995 are the means for legal sports betting in the state. These compacts were renewed in 2015.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab