New Mexico has a stormy gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the task force came to an accord with two important local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore 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, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased since 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.