New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. 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 Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two important local bands a year later, Governor King 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 gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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