New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. 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 Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 important 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 Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson 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 required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as an important factor like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.