New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby 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 house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key issue like they did in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
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