Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing the state 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 house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
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