Bingo in New Mexico
Posted in Casino on 12/17/2022 04:25 pm by Ashly
New Mexico has a rocky gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes 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 office in 1995, it appeared that Indian wagering in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in 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 greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.