New Mexico has a complex 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 cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force came to an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required 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 Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.