New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.