Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused 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 Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus 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 Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.
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