Bingo in New Mexico

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New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with two important local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.