New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a key factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.