Bingo in New Mexico
New Mexico has a complex gaming history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two prominent local bands a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.