01.30
Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed 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 announced a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two big local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.