New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Indian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing 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 compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.
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