New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $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 grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as an important factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.