Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.