New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.