New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with two important local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby 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, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from 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 exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.