New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the working group came to an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. 10 years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.