New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an accord with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.