New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.