New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups 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 accord, 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 government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as an important issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.