New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in 1989, 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 appointed a working group in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with two big local tribes 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 1995, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, 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, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.