New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had outstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
