New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined 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 Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
