New Mexico has a rocky gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the working group came to an accord with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s most likely wishful thinking.
November 5th, 2009
Tamara
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