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New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
