New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with two big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.