New Mexico Bingo

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Posted by Jace | Posted in Bingo | Posted on 14-01-2025

New Mexico has a complex gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two big local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby denying the government of New Mexico 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 contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.

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