New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group came to an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus costing the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired just $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a hot button factor like they did back in the 90’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.