New Mexico Bingo
Posted in Casino on 08/21/2024 07:25 am by Jamiya
New Mexico has a bitter gambling 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 American Indian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King announced a task force in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Indian bands. When the working group arrived at an accord with two important local bands a year later, the Governor refused to sign the agreement. He held up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took over in Nineteen Ninety Five, it appeared that American Indian wagering in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the compact with the Amerindian tribes, anti-gaming groups were able to tie the accord up in courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, therefore 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 government, to get the process moving on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. A decade had been burned for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have grown constantly since that time. Two Thousand and Five witnessed the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the operators.
Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the pie. Hopefully, the politicians are done batting around gambling as a hot button issue like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s probably wishful thinking.