New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.