On Monday, the Santa Ana Star Casino and Hotel reached an agreement with Las Vegas-based USBookmaking. Thus, the New Mexico Casino is to offer Sports Betting Services from USBookmaking and will launch its sportsbook in mid-October. USBookmaking is a provider of sports betting software which also manages the sportsbook for the Baldini casino in Nevada.
Even though Sports Betting is not legal in NM, the Santa Ana Star believes they can legally open a sportsbook. This is because it is a state tribal operation and is thus permissible under their current arrangement with the state.
Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel is a Native American casino in the Pueblo of Santa Ana in Bernalillo. The hotel casino opened in 1993 and is located on 73,000 acres of reservation land in the Rio Grande Valley. Furthermore, they are one of the top casinos in the state of New Mexico in terms of popularity and revenue.
Sports betting to be available at the Casino on October 16
According to a press release by USB, if all goes according to plan, the sportsbook will launch on October 16, 2018. Thus, they feel confident about the launch date because all has aspect of the sportsbook is ready.
The Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel will initially start offering single-team sports betting wagers. However, they are not the only New Mexico tribal casino looking to offer sports betting. Inn of the Mountain Gods is owned and operated by the Mescalero Apache Tribe and plans to have a sportsbook. A gambling industry source says if they do open a sportsbook, IGT could manage football betting for them.
The New Mexico Attorney General has not made a decision about the legality of sports betting in a tribal casino.