Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group came to an accord with two big local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has increased from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.