New Mexico has a complex gaming background. When the IGRA was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the American Indian casino craze. Politics assured that would not be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in Nineteen Ninety to create a compact with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby costing the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been squandered for gambling in New Mexico, including Indian casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo business has grown since 1999. In that year, New Mexico charity game owners brought in just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded one million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the operators.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicos are done batting over gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.
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