New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force came to an accord with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore 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 ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.