New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues 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 between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.