New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as an important factor like they did in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.