New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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