New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel came to an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
