New Mexico Bingo

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New Mexico has a bitter gaming background. When the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed by the House in 1989, it seemed like New Mexico would be one of the states to cash in on the Amerindian casino bandwagon. Politics guaranteed that wouldn’t be the case.

The New Mexico governor Bruce King appointed a working group in Nineteen Ninety to draft a contract with New Mexico American Indian tribes. When the task force arrived at an agreement with 2 big local tribes a year later, Governor King refused to sign the bargain. He held up a deal until 1994.

When a new governor took office in 1995, it appeared that American Indian gaming in New Mexico was a certainty. But when Governor Gary Johnson passed the contract with the American Indian tribes, anti-gambling groups were able to tie the accord up in the courts. A New Mexico court ruled that the Governor had overstepped his bounds in signing a deal, therefore denying the government of New Mexico many hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing revenues over the next several years.

It required the Compact Negotiation Act, signed by the New Mexico house, to get the ball rolling on a full compact between the Government of New Mexico and its Indian tribes. 10 years had been burned for gambling in New Mexico, which includes Indian casino Bingo.

The nonprofit Bingo industry has gotten bigger from Nineteen Ninety-Nine. That year, New Mexico not for profit game providers brought in only $3,048 in revenues. That climbed to $725,150 in 2000, and exceeded a million dollars in 2001. Not for profit Bingo earnings have grown steadily since then. Two Thousand and Five saw the biggest year, with $1,233,289 grossed by the providers.

Bingo is apparently popular in New Mexico. All sorts of operators try for a bit of the pie. With hope, the politicians are done batting over gaming as a hot button matter like they did in the 1990’s. That is probably wishful thinking.