New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the government 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 accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.