New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gambling as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
