New Mexico has a bitter gambling background. When the IGRA was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it looked like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics assured that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a task force in Nineteen Ninety to draft a compact with New Mexico Indian bands. When the panel arrived at an agreement with two big local bands a year later, the Governor declined 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 gambling in New Mexico was now a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson signed the compact with the Native bands, anti-gaming forces were able to tie the contract up in courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing the compact, thus denying the state of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico legislature, to get the ball rolling on a full compact amongst the State of New Mexico and its Native bands. 10 years had been lost for gambling in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The nonprofit Bingo business has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game owners acquired only $3,048. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and passed one million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo revenues have increased steadily since then. 2005 saw the greatest year, with $1,233,289 earned by the owners.
Bingo is certainly favored in New Mexico. All types of owners look for a bit of the action. Hopefully, the politicians are through batting over gambling as a key factor like they did in the 1990’s. That’s without doubt hopeful thinking.