New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 important local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Native betting in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Amerindian bands, anti-wagering groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues 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 State of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. Ten years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
September 11th, 2020
Tamara
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