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New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a key factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.
