New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes 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 appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying 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, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
