New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Native bands. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the contract with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering groups 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 deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a slice of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.