New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes 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 1995, it seemed that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as an important issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.