New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with two prominent 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 office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the deal up in 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, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.