Bingo in New Mexico
Friday, 8. May 2026
New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in 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 Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a key factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
Posted in Casino by Lance