Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore 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 ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important factor like they did in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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