New Mexico has a rocky gambling history. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Indian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a working group in 1990 to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two big local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the accord with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in only $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of providers look for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a hot button matter like they did back in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
This entry was posted on January 9, 2025, 8:25 pm and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.