Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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