New Mexico has a rocky gaming past. When the IGRA was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to create a contract with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two 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 Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that Governor Johnson had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the greatest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All kinds of owners try for a bit of the action. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as a key matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
January 16th, 2017
Abigail
Leave a reply