New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group came to an agreement with two important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the state of New Mexico many 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 compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
