New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with two big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.
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