New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups 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 a deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.
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