New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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