New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the deal 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 fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. 10 years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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