New Mexico has a stormy gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico Native tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is categorically beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.