New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group came to an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, 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 legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.