New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 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 over in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore 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, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.