New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.