New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. 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 get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues 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 contract between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.