New Mexico has a bitter gambling history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. Ten years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.