New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two big local bands a year later, the Governor refused 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 signed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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