New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing 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 compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.