Bingo in New Mexico
Sunday, 15. August 2021
New Mexico has a complex gaming past. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico Native tribes. When the working group arrived at an accord with 2 prominent local tribes a year later, Governor King declined to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the deal, thereby costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the CNA, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian bands. Ten years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, which includes American Indian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has grown from 1999. That year, New Mexico charity game owners acquired just $3,048. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed one million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have increased constantly since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All kinds of operators look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.
Posted in Bingo by Taryn