Casino Tips

Read more about the
Las Vegas 2024 Super
Bowl Streaker!

New Mexico has a rocky gambling past. When the IGRA was signed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in 1990 to draft a compact with New Mexico Native bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that Native betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the deal up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing a deal, thus denying the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. A decade had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.

The non-profit Bingo industry has grown since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.

Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That is probably hopeful thinking.