New Mexico has a bitter gambling past. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino bandwagon. Politics assured that would not be the case.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a panel in 1990 to discuss a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the working group came to an agreement with two big local bands a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until 1994.
When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gaming forces were able to hold the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the accord, thereby costing the government of New Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It required the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full accord between the Government of New Mexico and its Amerindian bands. A decade had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Amerindian casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico charity game providers acquired just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and surpassed a million dollars in 2001. Nonprofit Bingo earnings have increased steadily since then. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the providers.
Bingo is clearly popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are through batting over gaming as an important issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is most likely hopeful thinking.
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