New Mexico has a stormy gaming history. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.