New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus 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, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.