New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with two important local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Native bands, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying 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 legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.
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