Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. 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 now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
No comments yet.