New Mexico has a stormy 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 cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as an important matter like they did in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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