New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a hot button matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
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