New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.
This entry was posted on June 17, 2019, 7:25 pm and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.