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New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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