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New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
