New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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