New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Indian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a key factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.