New Mexico has a stormy gaming history. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that American Indian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering forces were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has increased from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of providers try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting around gaming as a key issue like they did in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.