New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
