New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
