New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an accord with 2 big local bands 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 betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key issue like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
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