New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with two important local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees 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 accord between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.