New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.
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