04.24
New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a complex gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to negotiate a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with two prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business 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 exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.