New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing 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, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.

Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.