Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key matter like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.