New Mexico has a complex gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to draft an accord with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an agreement with 2 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 over in 1995, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby 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, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the process moving on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of providers look for a piece of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key issue like they did back in the 90’s. That is without doubt hopeful thinking.