New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a rocky gaming 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 cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with two important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. 10 years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
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