New Mexico Bingo
New Mexico has a stormy gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a important matter like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.
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