10.10
New Mexico Bingo
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 Native casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with two important local tribes a year later, the Governor refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game providers brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.