2024 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 40 - Domestic Affairs
Article 3 - Property Rights
Section 40-3-9.1 - Gambling debts are separate debts of spouse incurring debt.

A gambling debt incurred by a married person as a result of legal gambling is a separate debt of the spouse incurring the debt.

History: Laws 1997, ch. 190, § 67.

Cross references. — For Gaming Control Act, see Chapter 60, Article 2E NMSA 1978.

Husband's gambling losses did not need to be repaid to the community where wife failed to establish that expenditures constituted waste of community assets. — In a divorce proceeding, where wife appealed the district court's characterization of assets and debts as separate or community property and the court's division of marital assets and debts between her and husband, the district court did not err in concluding that wife failed to demonstrate that the community was entitled to reimbursement for husband's gambling losses incurred during the marriage, because even assuming the gambling losses were a separate debt, whether the losses must be repaid to the community upon divorce depends on whether there was some special circumstance, such as breach of fiduciary duty to wife by husband or violation of a court order, so that the expenditure constituted waste of community assets. There was no evidence in the record that established the essential elements of a breach of fiduciary duty, a lack of consent by wife, or even the amount of the separate debt, necessary to establish a right of reimbursement. Autrey v. Autrey, 2022-NMCA-042, cert. granted.