New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
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