Bingo in New Mexico
Saturday, 20. March 2021
New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor 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 Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. 10 years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
Posted in Casino by Lance