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 get on the Indian casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate an accord with New Mexico Indian tribes. When the task force came to an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor signed the accord with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the deal up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native tribes. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico non-profit game operators brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.
Bingo is certainly beloved in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicians are through batting around gaming as a key issue like they did in the 90’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
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