02.21
New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.