New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with two big 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 over in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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