Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a bitter gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 important local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Native tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.