New Mexico has a stormy gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in 1990 to discuss a contract with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thus costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. Ten years had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gaming as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
June 23rd, 2019
Tamara
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