by New Mexico Indian Gaming Association

About the author: The New Mexico Indian Gaming Association is comprised of tribes that promote Indian gaming in New Mexico.

Gaming on reservations has emerged in New Mexico and throughout the Nation as a means for tribal communities to climb out of the most dismal economic conditions that exist anywhere in the Nation. Formidable obstacles impede economic improvement on the reservations, and, to date, they have proven largely insurmountable. Gaming on reservations simply must be considered against this defining backdrop.

Economic Development Is Needed

It is helpful, therefore, first to discuss the economic climate in which New Mexico Indian gaming exists. New Mexico is one of our poorest states, ranking forty-sixth in the nation in per capita income. In New Mexico, as in virtually every other western state, Indian people are...