New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a panel in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state 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 process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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