New Mexico has a rocky gambling history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group came to an accord with two important local tribes a year later, Governor King 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 gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between 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 not for profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity 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 increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.