New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act 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 wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian bands. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as an important factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.