New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.