New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with two 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 office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as an important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.
