New Mexico has a rocky gaming background. When the IGRA was passed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to negotiate a compact with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an accord with two important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in Nineteen Ninety Five, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the process moving on a full accord between the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators 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 earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All types of owners try for a slice of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are through batting over gambling as a hot button factor like they did in the 90’s. That is without doubt wishful thinking.
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