Sports bettors in New Mexico will have to continue relying upon shady offshore sportsbooks, illegal bookies, and friendly wagers.
Despite a strong push at the federal level to legalize sports betting in all states, New Mexico casinos are highly unlikely to add sports betting due to strong resistance against legalized betting on sports.
Congress in 1992 banned sports betting in all but four states, and New Jersey officials are pressing hard to lift that ban. Legalized sports betting in Atlantic City would be a boon for the city’s gaming industry as well as state and local tax coffers, New Jersey officials say.
Opposing them are most heads of the major professional sports leagues in the United States, particularly the NFL and Major League Baseball, which has a long history with sports betting.
The NFL and college football draw the most betting action in Las Vegas sportsbooks, and the American Gaming Association estimates $95 billion will be wagered on football games in the U.S. — $93 billion of it illegally.
NFL and Major League Baseball officials greatly oppose legal sports betting, but their counterparts in the NHL and NBA are more open to sports betting.
The NHL might approved a franchise to play in the under-construction and yet-to-be-named Las Vegas Arena, which opens in 2016 and hopes to be home ice for an NHL franchise.
The NHL and NBA also hold special events in Las Vegas, including the annual NBA Summer League, and at least one NBA official has advocated legalizing sports betting.
But with Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon the only states Congress has not banned from sports betting and no significant support for lifting the ban elsewhere, New Mexico isn’t likely to see legalization soon.
