The 1,700-square foot casino t the Nambe Falls Travel Center which has been operated by the Nambe Pueblo near Santa Fe since February 2016 could be the first tribal casino in New Mexico to close permanently.
Part of the reason is that the tribe was never in a position to build the 50,000 SF Star Trek themed facility that it wanted to build. It was forced to scale back when other nearby gaming tribes beat them to the punch, opening the Pojoaque Pueblo’s Buffalo Thunder and Cities of Gold casinos and Tesuque Pueblo’s Camel Rock casino first.
After business tapered off the tribe closed the casino in September. Whether this is permanent is unknown and Pueblo Governor Phillip A. Perez has refused to comment on it.
The neighboring casinos are also not doing well, with the Tesuque Pueblo’s Camel Rock Casino doing the worst.
Buffalo Thunder has almost 70,000 SF of gaming floor, a hotel and golf course, which makes it harder for smaller operations to compete.
No one outside of the Pojoaque Pueblo’s casinos knows how much or little it is making because it hasn’t reported its slots revenues to the state for two years due to a dispute with Governor Susana Martinez over a new tribal state gaming compact.
Fourteen gaming tribes operate in New Mexico. Most are expected to grow modestly over the next five years. Some economists believe that the state’s gaming market is saturated due to the lack of growth in the state’s population and personal income. That too could seal the fate of the Nambe Falls Travel Center since competition under such circumstances favors larger operations over smaller ones.
Nambe Pueblo first began planning for a science fiction-themed casino in the 1990s. That first iteration was for a floating casino in the middle of the lake on the pueblo.
In 2004 the tribe voted to pursue the Star Trek themed casino, but the backer persuaded the tribe to commit to a smaller casino aimed at attracting the local element that prefers small and comfortable.
When it finally did open, collecting more than $1 million in its first two months, but the second quarter saw a drop of $360,000 from the previous quarter. Last summer individual months never topped $12,000 per month. The casino closed September 8. Other tribal businesses at the travel center have remained open.
