New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.
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