New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.
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