The proposed compact between the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico includes a provision that would allow the Navajos to build three additional casinos in the state. One of those would be located within two miles of Laguna Pueblo’s Route 66 Casino Hotel and Travel Center, on Interstate 40 at exit 140.
In 2007, nine tribes, including Laguna, signed a compact limiting each to two casinos. At the time the tribes and the state agreed the limit offered a reasonable way to manage growth in a limited market. “Allowing the Navajo Nation to build as many as three additional casinos invalidates the basic tenets of consistency, continuity and fairness in the 2007 compact,” said Laguna tribal member Katherine Gorospe, chief of Government Relations, Laguna Development Corporation. “Recent changes in the proposed Navajo Nation compact, including the insertion of a five-year delay in new construction, does not change the lack of basic fairness to existing tribes nor does it remedy the reality that the New Mexico gaming market has already reached a point of product saturation.”
Gorospe said gaming revenue in New Mexico has been stagnant for the last five years, averaging less than 1 percent growth annually. “Additional casinos, particularly in and around Albuquerque, would cannibalize an already limited and saturated market, making it more difficult for existing tribal gaming entities to provide jobs and economic development in our communities and to many other New Mexicans.”
Dale Lockett, executive director of the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau, agreed. “Albuquerque in my opinion cannot sustain another addition of a large hotel with conference facilities without a negative impact to existing lodgers-tax paying hotels that have invested in Albuquerque’s and New Mexico’s economic engine,” he said. And independent economic consultant Christopher Erickson stated, “A new casino can only prosper by diverting revenue from existing businesses–whether another casino or in a related industry–and will contribute little to economic development.”
Gorospe noted, “Tribes that signed on to the 2007 gaming compact trusted the state would keep its promises. We encourage and support the efforts by all New Mexico gaming tribes to reach agreement soon on a new gaming compact. However, we respectfully request the 2007 compact market protections remain in place.”
