Bingo in New Mexico
Posted in Bingo on 06/08/2020 08:25 am by Eileen
New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in 1990 to create a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 prominent local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian bands, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. A decade had been squandered for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That’s probably hopeful thinking.