Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force came to an accord with two important 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 gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
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