New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a key factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.
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