New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
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