New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress 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 guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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