New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby 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, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.