Bingo in New Mexico
Posted in Casino on 05/31/2010 09:22 am by AshlyNew Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with two big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.