Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two important local bands a year later, the Governor 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 signed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson 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, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.