New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1989, it looked like New Mexico would be one of the states to get on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that would not be the situation.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King assembled a working group in Nineteen Ninety to negotiate a contract with New Mexico Amerindian tribes. When the working group arrived at an agreement with two prominent local tribes a year later, the Governor declined to sign the bargain. He would hold up a deal until Nineteen Ninety Four.

When a new governor took over in 1995, it seemed that Native gambling in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the contract with the Native tribes, anti-wagering forces were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thereby denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico government, to get the process moving on a full accord amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian bands. A decade had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Amerindian casino Bingo.

The not for profit Bingo industry has increased since Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico non-profit game owners brought in just $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed a million dollars in revenues in 2001. Non-profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is clearly favored in New Mexico. All sorts of owners look for a piece of the pie. With hope, the politicos are done batting over gambling as an important matter like they did back in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt wishful thinking.