New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
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 signed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus costing the state 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
September 26th, 2019
Meadow
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