Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.