New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with two big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore 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 ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
