New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group came to an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.
