New Mexico Sports Betting

In October, 2018, the Santa Ana Star Casino & Hotel and Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino began accepting sports wagers, even though New Mexico had not passed sports betting legislation. The move was made via a gaming compact with the state that permits "any or all forms of Class III Gaming," a category in the federal regulations that specifically includes "any sports betting and pari-mutuel wagering."

In April 2019, Isleta Resort & Casino announced that it expected to introduce sports betting by summer 2019 with USBookmaking serving as the provider. On 12 August, the casino began accepting sports wagers.

In January 2021, Representatives Raymundo Lara and Phelps Anderson introduced a bill that would allow sports betting licensees to offer betting through three different mobile skins. Table games would be permitted at racetrack casinos in the state should the bill pass into law, but electronic and online table games would not be permitted.

Tribal casinos offer legal in-person sports betting in New Mexico under their existing Class III compacts, which permit "any or all forms of Class III Gaming" including sports betting without requiring new legislation. Statewide mobile sports betting — which would require either new legislation or a compact amendment — remains illegal. In the 2025 legislative session, HB 367 was introduced to expand sports betting to racetracks and permit mobile wagering, but the bill failed to advance. In June 2026, Rep. John Block publicly urged New Mexico's gaming tribes and pueblos to voluntarily reopen the 2015 compact to permit statewide online sports wagering; tribal officials indicated they were unaware of any current efforts to do so.

In 2026, the State of New Mexico and several Pueblos filed a lawsuit against Kalshi, the CFTC-regulated prediction market platform, alleging that its sports event contracts constituted illegal sports gambling under New Mexico law. The case has raised broader questions about the intersection of federal commodities regulation and state gaming exclusivity rights.