New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby denying 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, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.
