New Mexico has a stormy gambling past. 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 cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to discuss an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with 2 important local bands 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 seemed that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
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