New Mexico has a complex gambling past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico Amerindian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two big local bands 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 Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Indian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full compact between the State of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown since 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is categorically favored in New Mexico. All types of operators try for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gaming as an important factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.