New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in Nineteen Eighty Nine, it seemed like New Mexico might be one of the states to cash in on the Native casino craze. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the situation.
The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a panel in Nineteen Ninety to discuss a compact with New Mexico American Indian bands. When the panel came to an accord with 2 big 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 appeared that Amerindian betting in New Mexico was a certainty. But when the new Governor passed the compact with the Native tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the contract up in the courts. A New Mexico court found that the Governor had out stepped his bounds in signing the accord, therefore costing the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees over the next several years.
It took the Compact Negotiation Act, passed by the New Mexico government, to get the ball rolling on a full contract amongst the State of New Mexico and its American Indian tribes. 10 years had been lost for gaming in New Mexico, including Native casino Bingo.
The non-profit Bingo business has grown from 1999. In that year, New Mexico not for profit game operators brought in just $3,048 in revenues. This number grew to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Non-profit Bingo earnings have grown constantly since that time. 2005 witnessed the largest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the owners.
Bingo is clearly beloved in New Mexico. All types of providers try for a slice of the action. With hope, the politicians are done batting around gaming as a key issue like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.
This entry was posted on December 30, 2009, 9:22 pm and is filed under Casino. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.