Bingo in New Mexico
by Juan on Friday, August 15th, 2008
New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed 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 craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft an accord with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel came to an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby 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 legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
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