New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government 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 ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. 10 years had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is categorically popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.