03.11
Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a complex gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as a hot button issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s most likely hopeful thinking.