New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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