New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.