New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. 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 get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the government 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 Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
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