New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico 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 ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
You must be logged in to post a comment.