Bingo in New Mexico
Friday, 29. July 2022
New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of operators look for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting around gambling as a key matter like they did in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
Posted in Casino by Franco