New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying 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, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.