New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.