New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to draft a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group came to an agreement with two important local bands 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 Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game operators acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of providers try for a piece of the action. With hope, the politicians are through batting over gambling as an important factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
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