New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson 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 took 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 Native bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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