New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was signed 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 guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel came to an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.