Bingo in New Mexico

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New Mexico has a stormy gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in 1990 to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force came to an accord with two big local bands a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Amerindian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. 10 years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo business has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting around gaming as an important issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.