New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.