New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel came to an accord with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying 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, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
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