New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.