New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the task force came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
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