New Mexico Bingo
Thursday, 11. January 2018
New Mexico has a bitter gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by the House in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in 1990 to create an accord with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the panel arrived at an accord with two prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that Native gaming in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native bands, anti-gambling groups were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that Governor Johnson had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby denying the state of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Native casino Bingo.
The not for profit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown steadily since that time. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is apparently beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of operators try for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting around gambling as a key factor like they did back in the 1990’s. That is most likely wishful thinking.
Posted in Bingo by Taryn