New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, 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 case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups 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 deal, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
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