New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson 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 required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
