New Mexico has a bitter gambling history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force arrived at an accord with two big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.