New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. 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 craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Indian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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