New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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