New Mexico has a rocky gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the task force came to an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thereby costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full contract amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Native tribes. Ten years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is apparently favored in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a slice of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a hot button factor like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.